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Summer is a time of opportunity to buy or rent luxury houses, especially if they are located in coastal areas such as Costa Brava. The area is characterized by great national and international attractiveness.
Exclusivity of this region has led to a significant increase in demand for real estate in the area among the French. According to the luxury real estate agency Barnes, the French currently account for 50% of luxury real estate purchases in Costa Brava.
Despite the fact that the health situation and travel restrictions have created uncertainty about demand behavior, Elisabeth Hernandez, director of Barnes Barcelona, assures that acquisitions volume of the French, whose first residence is in Barcelona, remains. “French buyers of luxury properties outside of Spain will reappear as soon as the health and mobility situation improves,” she says.
The pandemic has led to a change in the incentives for demand to buy or rent housing. Now the way of life has changed, and as a result, the client pays attention to other aspects. “Buyers are now asking for houses with open-space elements such as land plots, terraces or public areas. During the first half of the year, we saw a noticeable increase in operations with such characteristics,” the company notes.
In addition, teleworking has also changed residence preferences, as many French people living in major cities choose to buy houses in Costa Brava to improve their quality of life.
In this regard, experts predicted that after the coronavirus crisis there will be a decrease in average house prices, but the opposite happened in the premium housing segment. “According to the results of the first half of the year, everything suggests that in the short and medium term, housing prices in the Costa Brava will continue to grow gradually,” the expert says. At the same time, the pandemic has led to an increase in savings rate of people with higher incomes.
Combination of capital, large portfolios and new lifestyle habits will mean that housing will become a very important asset for luxury property buyers.