SLIM SHADY
Property
S pr pa o in in per ’s b En ty es gl ma t ish g
www.theolivepress.es
April 2023
L
IKE London buses, as the saying goes, you wait ages, then two turn up together. And that’s certainly the case with a pair of brand new buildings just opened in Estepona. Dramatically changing the coastline - and genesis of the once small fishing village - the Mirador del Carmen tower and nearby ‘carbon neutral’ town hall are very much a statement of current mayor Jose Maria Garcia Urbano. Soon to enter his fourth term, they come after a decade of grand openings, including a hospital, athletics stadium and orchid museum. Taking just 14 months to build, the unusual 12-floor Mirador del Carmen (left) comprises an arts and cultural centre, with close links to the Carmen Thyssen Museum, in Malaga. It also has a library, an auditorium for concerts and a rooftop terrace with viewing platform. At the opening at the weekend Urbano described it as a ‘colophon’, a Greek word, meaning inscription or stamp at the end of a book or manuscript. Junta president, Juanma Moreno, added it was a ‘gift’ to the town and its visitors. It comes just weeks after the town also finally inaugurated its new €13 million town hall (right). While its signature boast is an internal slide between the fourth and fifth floors to liven up the days of the 200 employees, the seven-floor structure also aims to be carbon neutral. Said to be the ‘most sustainable town hall’ in Spain, due to its renewable energy creation and ‘bioclimatic solutions’, the cube is sheathed by a white lattice designed to shield the inhabitants from the heat of the day. Meanwhile, photovoltaic panels have been installed on its roof, which are expected to cover the entire electricity demand.
SEEING DOUBLE: The new Estepona town hall and Mirador (below)
FOREIGN RUSH FOREIGN property buyers accounted for 88,858 home purchases in Spain last year - up by 45% on 2021 figures. The College of Registrars says deals struck by non-Spaniards worth at least €500,000 increased by 63.5% compared to the previous year, accounting for 8,975 transactions. The registrars added that the percentage of foreigners entering the Spanish housing market is normally around 13% annually, but rose last
High spending foreigners boost property market with Brits on top By Alex Trelinski
year to 13.8%. Overall, nearly 650,000 sales were carried out last year - the highest figure since 2007, just before the property bubble burst in Spain. The breakdown of results by nationality puts UK buyers at 11.07% of purchases made by foreigners. They are followed by Germans with
9.47%, French (6.97%), Belgians (5.21%), Moroccans (5.15%), Romanians (5.07%) and Dutch (4.91%). The registrars deduced that properties with an area of over 100 m2 are bought by Americans, the British, Danes and Dutch, while those below 80 m2 are usually acquired by Moroccans, Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles and Italians. Unsurprisingly tourist areas are the areas that most foreign buyers go
for- led by Alicante province with 41.7% of all house deals, with Tenerife on 35%. In terms of regions, the Balearic Islands account for 34.38% of all non-Spanish sales. That's followed by the Canary Islands (28.6%), Valencia (26.8%), Murcia (19%), Andalucia (15%) and Catalunya (13.5%). Broadly speaking, British and German buyers led the list of foreign
buyers in coastal and island areas, while Romanians and Moroccans were the leading non-Spanish purchasers in landlocked regions like Aragon, Extremadura and Madrid. Total transactions last year were 646,241 deals - 14.5% more than in 2021 with used property sales exceeding 530,000. The average price paid for a home in Spain was around €188,000 - a 4.5% rise, with bigger increases in the Balearic Islands, Madrid, the Basque Country and Catalunya.