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The European Real Estate Network is the only truly pan-European network of independent, top quality, boutique brokerage companies. It brings together their considerable expertise, international contacts and resources to the benefit of their clients, be they buyers, sellers, investors or developers. The network is an international platform at the highest level for the acquisition, marketing and sale of premium real estate.
Bi-annually the European Real Estate Network issues a market update for luxury residential tourism in Europe. In general summertime has seen slight confidence coming back to the property market. Although the lower end markets have been hit severely, the high end residential tourism market remained steady throughout and especially in “isolated pockets” throughout Europe. In these areas sales have been steady and ongoing although often fuelled by realistic pricing or accepted offers.
From September 2008 to June 2009 all affiliates have seen a decrease in sales for the luxury residential market. Inquiries still kept coming in but were for 50% not serious inquiries or are still in the sales pipeline.
Our affiliate in Austria, Peter Marschall from Marschall Immobilien is not sure if the bottom of the financial crisis has been reached and expects the prices to go down slightly.
Though in Switzerland both affiliates, WETAG Consulting and CGI Immobilier have signaled that prices remained steady and in the Lake Geneva area there has even been an increase due to the large demand and limited offer of real estate. For Wetag Consulting that is covering Ticino with its lakes, Lago Maggiore and Lago di Lugano, parts of Graubünden, the Italian side of Lago Maggiore and Lago di Lugano as well as some parts of Lago di Como, and 80% of the buyers are international, namely from Germany, Italy, The Netherland and United Kingdom. Due to the changed tax laws in Switzerland foreigners have a great advantage to buy.
Due to a large downfall in the Spanish economy, our Spanish affiliates have seen a serious decrease in inquiries and sales for the second home market. Diana Morales from DM Properties, covering Marbella and the Costa del Sol has seen a slight recovery since February 2009 although prices have come down.
This opened a market for bargain hunters looking for new opportunities. In Valencia, José Ribes Bas from Rimontgó saw the same trends though the high-end market remained stable in that area.
The affiliates from Mallorca, Balearic Properties saw an increase in 2009 although this is an increase compared with a large downfall in 2008. In Mallorca the buyers market is mainly dominated by German and Swiss clients while in 2007 the main buyer in Mallorca was English.
In Italy the same downfall was signalled as in Spain. In the Milan area, Giorgio Viganň Real Estate noticed that a lot of sellers withdrew their property and started to rent them out because of the price decrease.
Marco Argentieri the director of Cofim Immobiliare, covering Lake Garda, Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto had a relatively good spring and summer although the market is not stable yet.
In Tuscany. Paolo del Chicca Immobiliare sees a trend of an increasing of demand for properties as wine producing farms with a well-know brand, castles, villas and/or apartment very close to the sea (seafront villas or seafront apartments).
A big increase in inquires started again coming in this summer with Immobilsarda from Sardinia. The prices of the high-end properties remained stable and the Italian families are investing in the market again.
IRG International Realty Group in Portugal commented as well that off plan buying in resorts and developments has completely disappeared. As in Mallorca the English and Irish market has decreased and it takes far more time to convert leads into a sale.
This summer the number of inquires has gone up and the market is slowly recovering after reaching bottom in Q1 of this year.
In Denmark, Estate Group encountered price drops of 25% in the last 1,5 years. Developers filed for administration and so did banks.
This summer the market is slowly stabilizing and for Estate Group August and September have been very good months as the professional buyers are entering the market again. As the mortgage rate decreased by 50%, opportunities are opening for young couples wanting to buy their first property.
According to Von Poll Immobilien, Germany still has a good market. The real estate prices compared to other European countries are much lower (4x lower than for example Switzerland) and the market is still stable with low real estate prices over a period of 15 – 20 years.
Prices still increase steadily and clients continue to buy as they do not expect to see any dramatic price falls.
In the high end market in Berlin of 2,0 mio and up it is more quiet at the moment, though in the
1,0 mio – 500,000 segment the demand is high.
What also creates a positive image is that the German press is positive about real estate because of the history of the German market. |
