Take advantage of Spain’s buyer’s market

A slowing property market has its winners and its losers. The losers are the vendors who want to achieve a quick sale at a high price; the winners are the buyers who want to shop around for a deal. Partners Tracy Stratton-Smith and Richard Choo from Polperro and London respectively certainly fall into the latter category having just picked up a four-bedroom villa near Marbella for 100,000 euros below its asking price.

Tracy (36) and Richard (41) have lived on the Costa del Sol for five years but always in rented accommodation. With demanding jobs, Tracy as a Mum and freelance hairdresser, Richard as an IT Consultant, they never had the time or the inclination to house-hunt and frankly felt that property was overpriced. As the market cooled towards the end of 2007 and daughter Lylla (3) settled into school in San Pedro just to the west of Marbella, Tracy and Richard decided that they’d take the plunge and go bargain-hunting.

Tracy picks up the story, “Our criteria started off rather vague, a townhouse or a villa maybe with a budget of 500,000 to 700,000 euros thanks to the proceeds of a house sale back in the UK. The only definites were that we needed a big garden, so apartments were out, and wanted to stay to the west of Marbella close to Lylla’s school. Independent of each other Richard and I did some Googling and both made an online enquiry with Duchy Estates who seemed to be the local specialists. We were emailed a selection of properties, many of which were exclusive to the agent rather than pulled off a multiple listing system, and as they seem to understand what we were after we agreed to conduct some viewings.”

Peter from Duchy Estates began by asking Tracy and Richard to “not be polite but be honest” so he could save everyone from having their time wasted and quickly zero-in on what was floating their boat. Peter was achieving some success when there was a twist to the tale.

Tracy continues, “Richard and I spotted a ‘for sale’ sign on a beachside villa at El Saladillo between San Pedro and Estepona available direct from the owner. We fell in love with it and put in an offer but were warned that another couple had been interested in the property for several months. So we went in at asking price, transferred the deposit to our lawyers, and started decorating the rooms in our heads. Mentally we’d already moved in so we gave Peter a quick courtesy call to break the news. He took it well, wished us luck and whilst he hoped it wouldn’t, asked us to remember his name if the sale fell through. Sadly Lady Luck wasn’t on our side and the vendor cruelly snatched the deal from under us having bartered a better commission arrangement with the other interested party. Our fantasy was lost and we dug out Peter’s business card. He greeted our call with a breezy “I’m gutted for you, but delighted that it now gives me the opportunity to find you a property to match your dreams”, so on we pressed.”

By now Tracy and Richard’s budget had crept slightly higher and a villa that hadn’t featured in Peter’s game plan before suddenly became an option as the vendor had dropped the price from 890,000 to 790,000 euros. The four bedroom villa in Cancelada was on a 940m² plot, had an immaculately maintained garden with swimming pool, partial sea views, and so Peter arranged a viewing.

Tracy resumes the tale, “Richard was immediately impressed with how well the property was built. The French architect had opted for 600mm thick walls and at nine years old the property had had plenty of time to settle so anything structural that was going to fail would have already done so. The current owners, a couple from West Hampstead, had lovingly looked after the villa and no major works on the kitchen or bathrooms was needed. In short we loved it, but not for 790,000 euros, it was too much. After some negotiations our initial offer of 660,000 euros was nudged a little higher to 690,000 euros but for that we also got most of the furniture and cupboards full of bed linen and crockery. Our journey was complete but we had one more headache to come, or rather I did. Richard took a six-week work contract in Moscow so I had to sign at the notary and move the contents of two apartments single-handedly. I can see now why they say that moving house is up there with divorce and bereavement for stress!”

Tracy, Richard and little Lylla cannot envisage moving from their villa for many years to come and with all that space they might even extend the family, provided Richard doesn’t disappear off to Moscow for too long again.

For further information, visit duchyestates.co.uk.