Hello, everyone, thanks for tuning in.  We’ve been in business for 21 years now, I keep saying 20, but actually it’s now 21, and we would like to think that we have a pretty good handle and grasp on the market and the dynamics here and the different things that go on in the different markets that there are. The Costa del Sol is not just one market that all the different elements can be applied. There’s lots of different moving parts and different sub markets, and different areas, and different developments. And I personally believe that you need to have quite a wealth of experience to understand the pricing mechanisms, and how things are valued, and the true value of something in all the different locations.

So I’m going to talk today about two developments that I know very well, that are very dear to my heart. One is Four Seasons which is a development in Los Flamingos Golf Resort which is a place where I lived for nine years up until October last year, so pretty recent. And we have been responsible for, I would say, 80% of the sales within Four Seasons over the last, yeah, last nine years or so, because we’ve been on site, because vendors trusted us to sell the properties quickly and at the right price. And also because of that, we had a lot of buyers come to us looking for the best properties. So we were pretty successful there, and I have an understanding of what a two-bed apartment is worth, I have an understanding of what a two-bed corner apartment is worth, a three-bed, a three-bed penthouse, and a four-bed penthouse. So, for instance, the apartments, two-bed apartments generally over the last year or two have been selling for anything between 300 and €350,000. Three-bed apartments, there’s been a real shortage of, actually. I think there’s only about six on the whole development, so they rarely come up for sale. And when they do, I think you can expect a price of between 400 and 450,000. Three-bed penthouses, again, depending on condition, and views, and orientation, and things like that, I think you would expect anything between sort of 550 to 600,000. And four-bed penthouses or the corner units, probably between 575 and 650, again, depending on condition, and aspect, and various things like that.

And as I say, we’ve been very active in that market, we understand it, we get it. We think those prices are fair, they are prices that the vendors are willing to sell for and prices that buyers are willing to pay when they come into the area. So it’s really shocked me, the last few days, I’ve seen and heard of a couple of listings in there. One is a penthouse, it’s been reformed to a nice standard, but the asking price is over €900,000. And there’s also another one that I’ve seen on another agent’s website at over €1,000,000, another penthouse. Now as I say, we’ve been selling penthouses in there for between 550 and 650,000. So we all know, and I’ve talked about it on other videos, we all know that in certain developments with a shortage of stock, which Four Seasons is, that there’s been a slight price increase because of that. You know, it’s the old supply versus demand kind of equation. So I would expect there at the moment to be a slight increase in price because the sellers are in greater control of the market, because there’s fewer properties that are available. But really? A jump from, say, 600,000 as an average to 900, a million, I don’t understand that, and I don’t understand how vendors would list for that price and I don’t understand why buyers would pay that price. So it frustrates me on two counts.

We get approached a lot by vendors looking to sell properties. And I suppose the strategy that we have is just to be really honest and transparent with people. So we’ll sit down with a vendor and we will say, okay, in our opinion, the property is worth this. Obviously its true worth is what someone is prepared to pay, and we’ll come on to that in a minute, but its true worth is, say €600,000. My belief is that you can rarely go up, you can always come down in price, so why don’t we put it on at 650, test the market, see if we get any interest. If we’re not getting interest, it means that the price is too high and then we have that floor to come down to. But I get the feeling that some agents are just telling vendors what they want to hear. So of course, if you invite a second agent in, after me, who said 600,000, if somebody else comes in and says, “I think I can get you a million”, or 900,000 for this apartment, chances are you’re going to instruct that agent, not me. Because that agent is saying, “The market’s booming, and we’ve got clients who are willing to pay a million for this place, blah, blah, blah”. So yeah, you’re going to sign up there and then, and the agent has the listing. It means that we don’t, and it means that the agent is going out there touting this property at €1,000,000.

Okay, so we don’t do that, because we don’t want to have listings for the sake of vanity. We don’t want a million-euro listings in Four Seasons that we’re never going to be able to sell, it just takes up too much of our time, to be honest with you. We would rather be getting on with selling stuff rather than just having stuff there, in the shop window, that we’re never going to sell. Maybe we lose listings because of our strategy, I don’t know, but we would still prefer to be honest and upfront with people. If it means we lose the listing, we lose the listing. So that’s one little gripe that I have. The second gripe, which is more a kind of client-care thing really, is buyers who come along and are being educated that penthouses in Four Seasons are worth €1,000,000, are being led up the garden path. Because they’re not worth it. Again, it brings that thing into play about, what is the property worth? It’s worth what someone is prepared to pay. So maybe somebody would just fall in love with Four Seasons and go, “Yeah, I’m having that penthouse, I don’t care whether it’s 600, 700, 800, 900, no, a million, I’ll have it”. And that’s fine, and if that’s the case, and the buyer’s happy, everyone’s happy. The vendor’s super happy, he’s made 400,000 more than what it’s probably worth. But if I’ve got a client, a buyer, we represent hundreds of buyers a year who ask our advice, and they will say “Okay, Four Seasons, tell me about it”. And I will be able to say okay, well, I lived there for nine years and the pros are this, the cons are that. This is what I think is good about it, bad about it. This is what to watch out for and of course, they’re going to say okay, what do you think these things are worth? And I will honestly say what I think. And what I normally say to clients is “Look, I think the property is worth this, but if we can get it for a little bit less, then great! All good for you”. But I can’t, hand on heart, without crossing my fingers behind the back, I can’t honestly say to people, “Come to Four Seasons, there’s a penthouse here for €1,000,000, it’s worth every penny”. I can’t do it. I can’t do it, because I was selling there last year for 550 to €600,000. I can’t honestly say “Yeah, that property’s worth €1,000,000” without feeling awful. And I think if people buy at that price in that development, they’re going to be stuck with that property and not going to be able to sell it. Because not only are you buying at the peak, you’re buying at the super peak, you’re buying at Everest prices. It’s just off the scale. And there’s no rhyme or reason why that is priced at that level.

Second place that is very close to my heart, Señorio de Marbella, I’ve talked about it in videos before. I think it’s a fantastic development, it’s 40 years old, the first phase is 40, maybe 50 years old. It’s opposite the Puente Romano, just behind the mosque, on the Golden Mile, I’ve just bought a property in there, as an investment. It’s a little, two-bed, one-bath thing, it needs gutting, and I’m going to reform it and I’m going to rent it out and hopefully I’ll add some value to it along the way. I think I paid a fair price for it, I don’t think I’ve got to bargain particularly, but I think I paid a fair price, vendor’s happy, I’m happy, everyone’s happy. So the advertised price for the property that I bought was €398,000. I thought it was a little bit, little bit toppy, but anyway, I didn’t pay that price. And there’s now, there’s a lack of stock in there as well, there’s about two properties in there for sale. There’s a townhouse at a million, which I think is a fair price, and there’s an apartment at 585, I think, which is a much larger apartment, they seem sort of fairly priced. But the other day there was a, an apartment that was, that was released, very, very similar to the one that I’ve bought, which started with three. And this apartment’s been renovated, and been furnished very nicely. And it’s been put on the market at €700,000. And it’s, it’s like, wow, okay! You know, maybe 450, maybe even 495, you know, if something has been done really well and we know that there’s a demand for properties near the Puente Romano, there’s the “Puente Romano Effect”, and Señorio de Marbella is a lovely development, it’s got a lot going for it, but 700,000? I mean, that is pretty much double the price, which is extraordinary. And again, it comes down to, you know, what is someone prepared to pay? That’s the true value. I mean, if someone’s prepared to pay, you know, they just want to be near the Puente Romano, they can’t maybe afford Puente Romano prices, but they can afford one of these. 700,000, they might just say, “Yeah, I’ll have it!”. Great, everyone’s happy. And who am I to know? But it just seems that, wow, you know? And I just worry that there are either vendors who are getting a little bit greedy or there are agents who are getting a little bit excited, or agents who just don’t know what they’re talking about. And we come across this a lot, with a lot of agents. And hey, there are hundreds of us, there are thousands of us. And a lot of them do a really good job, and a lot of them are ultra professional, fantastic. But there are also quite a lot who are new to the scene. They’ve been here maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe two years, and they don’t really know what they’re talking about, to be absolutely honest. They don’t have 21 years’ experience in the market, of having seen the little peaks and troughs and knowing what things have sold for in the past. They just, I don’t know, maybe they’re just watching too much of these “Selling Sunsets” and all these TV programmes, where everyone’s just getting really excited about pricing and everything’s a million plus, if it’s not a million it’s not worth showing. You know, we live in the real world, I like to think we do, anyway, not sure at the moment, but we live in the real world, and, we like to have honest, open, transparent conversations with vendors and with buyers. And at the moment, I’m just kind of, wow! I’m saying “Wow!”, to myself too many times at the moment about some crazy valuations, about some agents that are just getting a bit excited, maybe a little bit inexperience, this video is just a little shout-out, a little warning to people, if you need, well, you do need solid advice about these things. And we get, as I say, we get asked a lot by clients, “Is this worth it?” “Is this worth it?” And we always give really honest answers, sometimes it’s “Yeah, absolutely it’s worth it, get in there, quick!” Or sometimes it’s like, “Do you know what? No, I don’t think it is worth it. I would hang fire, maybe look at other options”, or “Let’s see if we can get that price chipped down”, but we’ll always give an opinion. It might not be the opinion you want to hear, but we’ll always give an opinion. And that opinion is based on those 21 years’ experience. I know I’m banging on about this, but it is so important, because Marbella is all about little nuances, little micro-markets within the bigger picture, and if you don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t know what you’re talking about you are in danger of misleading your clients, at least, and- can I say bullshitting your client? at worst. And you know, I just sincerely hope that people who are making decisions are doing so having taken the right advice and that the people giving the advice are qualified to do so, and they’re doing it with the right reasons in mind.

And there endeth the lesson for today. I just felt compelled, it’s not often I do, but I just felt compelled to do a little video about it, just to bring everyone to their, to their senses really. Anyway, have a lovely day, and we’ll catch you again soon.