Marbella Property
MARKET REPORT 2023-2024 By Christopher Clover
Christopher Clover, founder and Managing Director of Panorama Properties, has been reporting on the Marbella property market for more than 50 years
The residential property market in the Marbella area has seen an extraordinary surge, achieving unprecedented levels of sales activity at all price levels. This remarkable growth has extended to all sectors of the Marbella economy, including tourism, the opening of new prestige hotels and restaurants, construction of new properties, refurbishment of older ones, and virtually all of the service and hospitality industries. Many have described the heightened activity since the end of the pandemic as intense, almost frenetic.
THE LUXURY MARKET REACHES HISTORIC LEVELS WORLDWIDE The luxury market has seen historic levels, not only in property, but in all other sectors of luxury goods and services around the world. The top end of the market has been defying the pessimism present in some other economic market sectors. While the pandemic has undeniably caused a lot of hardships for many people and sectors, the wealthiest have witnessed a record rise in their overall assets and wealth. According to Forbes, there are 2,640 billionaires as of May 2023. To put this into some context, this is almost 20 times the amount there were in 19871. There is more liquidity among the wealthy
today than ever before. This, of course, fuels the luxury property market not just in Marbella, but worldwide. Take the luxury car market as an example: at the beginning of 2023, Rolls-Royce reported record orders for the year, despite an average price tag of around half a million euros for their luxury cars. And pre-orders for their fully-electric Spectre model, due to go on sale at the end of 2023, have exceeded all expectations.2 Or Ferrari. Between January and September of 2022 sold 20% more cars than in the same period the previous year.3 And the privately-held fashion and beauty giant, Chanel, saw sales rise 17% reaching $17 billion in 2022.4 While Richemont, who owns Cartier,
1. Forbes: “Forbes’ 37th Annual World’s Billionaires List: Facts And Figures 2023” 2. Reuters: “Rolls-Royce rides ongoing luxury demand to sales record in 2022”, 9 January, 2023 3. The Economist: “The priciest cars are selling fast”, 12 January, 2023 4. Business of Fashion: “Chanel to Double Capital Investments, Bolster ‘Ultimate Luxury Experience”, 25 May, 2023
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