The fever to buy a home in Malaga skyrockets: sales record since 2007.
The continued arrival of national and international investors and the interest of citizens in moving house after the pandemic has led to 11,165 homes being sold in the first quarter, 54% more than a year ago.
The fever to buy a home in Malaga has been unleashed. In the first quarter of this year there have been 11,165 transactions in the province, which is 54% more than in the same period last year and the highest figure since 2007, which we must not forget was the last great year of the brick boom.
In the first three months of this year, 124 houses have been sold per day, according to records published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), and both the second-hand and new market is growing by leaps and bounds. For example, last year 5,172 used property sales were signed and this year there have been 8,510, a 65% increase.
What is the reason for this strong upturn?
Violeta Aragón, secretary general of the Association of Builders and Developers of Málaga (ACP), puts it down to two reasons. The first is that many Malaga residents, with the pandemic and the confinement, have decided to change their homes, to look for another one that has more free spaces, communal areas, swimming pool… Something other than a flat with four walls, which has been very stifling during the months of confinement. “After the pandemic, people have valued where to live more and have started to give importance to other things, not only seeing housing as a place to go to sleep”, says Aragón.
The second reason, according to the secretary general of the ACP, is that “Malaga is positioning itself and is in the sights of many national and international investors” for several reasons. Numerous companies are coming to Malaga, especially technology companies, with a number of workers who need housing to live temporarily or permanently. Added to this is the fact that, with the pandemic, teleworking is an option that is no longer frowned upon by companies and this is allowing many people to live in Malaga even though they work for a company whose headquarters are thousands of kilometres away.
On the other hand, Malaga continues to be a basic focus for both residential and short-stay tourism. In the first case, foreigners are buying homes to spend long periods of time on the coast or even to live out their retirement years and, in the second case, more and more companies are buying houses and entire buildings to refurbish them and put them on the market as tourist homes or for long-term rentals. There are many examples of this. One of the latest is Casavo, a firm that has several investment funds behind it and has announced that it has 10 million euros to buy flats in various parts of the centre of Málaga with the intention of refurbishing them and selling them at a higher price.
“Housing is one of the great refuges for investors and in Malaga there is a lot of pressure,” stresses Carlos Rueda, the Malaga representative of the real estate portal Idealista, who adds that “I have spoken to developers in Barcelona and Valencia and they tell me that their city councils are starting to put obstacles in the way of construction there, so many investors are betting on Malaga”.