http://www.lucasfox.com/Property/Spain/costa-brava.html

1. COSTA BRAVA
REAL ESTATE MARKET
Q1 & Q2 2013
Tom Maidment
Director Lucas Fox Costa Brava
www.lucasfox.comCOSTA BRAVA REAL ESTATE MARKET Q1 & Q2 2013
COSTA BRAVA REAL ESTATE
MARKET: OVERVIEW
• The property market in the Costa Brava
has seen the strongest two quarters
of trading since the property crash of
2006/7, with property transactions in
the first six month period of 2013 up to
40% higher than the number of sales
recorded during the peak summer
months of 2012
• Strong demand at the high end of
the market is being driven by Northern
European and Eastern European buyers
• International interest in Costa Brava
properties is growing at a fast rate.
Unique international visits to the Costa
Brava property pages of the Lucas
Fox website jumped 82% in the first
half of 2013, with visitors from the
Netherlands, Switzerland and Russia
increasing the fastest
COSTA BRAVA REAL ESTATE
MARKET: SUMMARY
Property transactions in the Costa
Brava experienced a higher-than-usual
surge in January 2013 with the level of
transactions up to 30% higher than in
January 2012 and up to 40% higher than
the number of sales recorded during the
peak summer months of 2012.
According to Spain’s Office of National
Statistics, property transactions
in Spain’s Costa Brava increased
significantly in the first two quarters of
2013 compared to the same period
in 2012, peaking with a 30% increase
during the month of January.
“We have seen a marked increase
in the level of property transactions
in the opening two quarters of 2013
compared to the same period last year,”
comments Tom Maidment, Director of
As we predicted in
our previous market
report, the level of real
estate transactions in
the Costa Brava has
continued to rise in
2013 and there are
strong indications
that we may now have
turned the corner.

2. www.lucasfox.comCOSTA BRAVA REAL ESTATE MARKET Q1 & Q2 2013
Lucas Fox’s Costa Brava office. “Indeed
the level of movement in the market is
now noticeably higher than at any time
since the start of the property crash in
2006/7. Buyer confidence appears to
have reached a new high and property
owners are increasingly prepared to offer
attractive discounts in order to achieve
a sale, creating a far more active market
than we have seen in recent years.”
“There has been strong demand at the
higher end of the market – specifically for
luxury properties priced at 1.5m euros
and above, and strong demand from
clients – particularly northern European
buyers - looking to invest around half a
million Euros.”
“In general, investors entering the higher
end of the market are doing so with a
long-term view, sensing that prices are
now bottoming out, whilst clients at
the lower end are principally looking
for distressed sales and significantly
discounted opportunities”
COSTA BRAVA PROPERTY SALES
TRANSACTIONS
Following the surge in property
transactions in January 2013, the level
of sales in the Costa Brava remained
consistently higher than during the same
period in 2012 with April and May seeing
levels of property sales equivalent to those
achieved in peak summer 2012.
COSTA BRAVA AVERAGE
SALES PRICES
According to real estate web portal
Idealista, average property prices in key
areas of the Costa Brava experienced a
slight drop. The coastal area of Lloret de
Mar reduced the least in price in the first
half of the year, dropping on average
€57/m2 and ending the second quarter
on €2,032/m2.
SHORT-TERM RENTAL DEMAND
According to the Spanish Tourism
Data agency Frontur, in the first half
of 2013, 26.1 million tourists visited
Spain overall, an increase of 4.2% over
last year. Catalunya (which includes
Northern Spain’s Costa Brava region)
and the Balearic Islands are the principal
destination for the majority of tourists.
While the UK, Russia and France
remained the principal tourist markets,
it was the Russian and American tourists
that grew the largest in visiting numbers
in the first half of 2013.
Holiday accommodation rentals have
remained in strong demand during the
first two quarters of 2013, replicating
patterns from the past two years. While
figures are for all of Catalunya, this
includes holiday properties located in
the Costa Brava. 9% of all international
tourists stay in rented properties while
visiting Spain, and this is particularly
often the case for luxury visitors to the
Costa Brava. In all but one month of Q1
and Q2 2013, more foreign travellers
stayed in holiday accommodations
than for the same months in 2012 or
2011. In May 2013, 46,329 foreign
travellers stayed in non-hotel holiday
accommodation in Catalunya.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT INTEREST
The first six months of 2013 have seen
a substantial increase in the number of
Lucas Fox website visitors searching
for property in the Costa Brava. Overall
visits have jumped by 91%, with many of
these viewing pages several times over
the last six month period. Unique visits
looking at Costa Brava properties also
jumped 82% in the first half of 2013.
Property Sales Transactions for Girona, Spain 2012 – 2013 which includes
the Costa Brava region / Source: ine.es
Average Sales Prices for Costa Brava properties (selected areas): Q3 2010 – Q2 2013
Source: idealista.com
€ per Square Meter

3. ABOUT THE LUCAS FOX
MARKET REPORTS
You can keep receiving up-to-date market reports from the
Lucas Fox International Properties team. Subscribe to future
updates at our website or bookmark our blog for the latest
news on the Costa Brava real estate market.
Alexander Vaughan
Founding Partner
Tom Maidment
Director Lucas Fox Costa Brava
For more information contact us:
E info@lucasfox.com / T (+34) 933 562 989
www.lucasfox.com
Foreign residents staying in holiday apartments in Catalunya(‘000): 2011 – Q2 2013
Source: Ine.es
Foreign website visitors to Lucas Fox
Costa Brava property pages: Q1 & Q2
2013 / Source: Google Analytics for
Lucas Fox website
Website visits from clients from the
Netherlands, Switzerland and Russia saw
the sharpest increase.
LUCAS FOX ANALYSIS AND
PREDICTIONS FOR 2013
“As we predicted in our previous
market report, the level of real estate
transactions in the Costa Brava has
continued to rise in 2013 and there are
strong indications that we may now
have turned the corner,” commented Mr
Maidment.
“The Costa Brava’s international appeal
as an exclusive and highly desirable
holiday destination continues to rise. In
El Celler de Can Roca, the region now
boasts the number one restaurant in the
world and in the PGA de Catalunya’s
‘Stadium Course’, we are also
acknowledged as having the number one
golf course in Spain.”
“The opening in January of the new
AVE high speed rail link has also further
enhanced the region’s accessibility to
northern Europe – a key selling point for
many Lucas Fox clients and one which we
expect to have an significant impact on
our business.”
“With the introduction of new residency
laws planned for Autumn 2013, we
expect a sustained increase in trading in
the second half of the year and a rise in
demand from non-EU buyers looking to
take advantage of the attractive incentive
of Spanish residency in return for a real
estate investment of over 500,000 Euros.”