“In twenty months, more or less, real estate, for example on Isidor Macabich Avenue, has almost doubled.”. As in all the reports in this series, the reader can already imagine that this sentence does not correspond with the reality of the Ibiza current although it may well appear to be so. More than 45 years ago someone wrote in this very newspaper about price drift and, as an example, a button: an apartment in that artery of Vila went from costing 1.8 million pesetas to 3.3 million pesetas between 1978 and 1980.
That was the minimum price for apartments in the city at that time: “They range between two million and six million, of 50 and 170 square meters, respectively.”. Something more economical could be found, studios of between 25 and 30 meters for 1.3 million and a bungalow of just over 60 meters for between 1.6 and 2 million pesetas.
According to the calculations of the time, the square meter of housing built in the city was around 24,000 pesetas, 144.24 euros, although this figure is far from the current one (around 7,000 euros per meter, according to one of the latest Fotocasa reports), it already seemed like a fortune at that time. And that the price of the square meter was almost equal to that of the minimum wage, nothing to do with the current reality: the cost of the square meter is five times that of the minimum wage.
“Everything is too expensive”
“Everything is too expensive, even the inch of land.” stated this newspaper in July 1979 in a report analyzing how the purchase or rental of a “studio apartment, apartment, bungalow, chalet, villa or country house” affected the housing market, plagued by “scams and abuses”.
Luxury began to emerge, driven by the second homes, where peninsulars and foreigners spent the summer: “The normal in villas amounts from five to 20 million”. A villa in Talamanca, of 750 meters with one hundred meters built “with living room, fireplace, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, garage and garden” was sold for five million. A similar one, but in Roca Llisa, was already going for seven million. And if someone dreamed of a small country house, the price was halfway: six million.
The most expensive mansion for sale at the time(this is also what the writers of the time were dedicated to, like those of today) was an estate of 129,000 meters with 750 built meters for which they were asking 65 million pesetas (390,000 euros, what a small flat in Ibiza costs nowadays). “It is the most expensive thing that we have been able to find on the island, and it is not so much with respect to what it offers”, considered the journalist who signed this information, José V. Serradilla.
The price per square meter of plots and rustic land varied enormously depending on the area. While in Roca Llisa the cost per meter of a plot was 2,000 pesetas, in “plots four kilometers from Ibiza there are plots at 1,000 pesetas”. As for the rustic, “the cheapest” that could be found was 50 pesetas per square meter and the most expensive, 120 pesetas. However, they warned that, in this case, it was essential that a minimum purchase of 15,000 square meters to be able to build something, “taking advantage of the land law”.
Distrustful tourists and cash payments
What tourists bought the most – “to buy in Ibiza is to fall in love with Ibiza. It is to stay here or to force yourself to come” – were apartments. Those who bought more, the Germans. And the moment when sales soared, September and October “after trying, which is logical”. They encountered a problem, however, that on the island “the mentality of the letters and deferrals does not enter” and the locals demanded the tourists to pay “in cash”. In fact, the journalist launched a proposal to visualize how the foreigners if we were to mark the foreign properties with little flags on a map of Ibiza…”, he said.
According to Diario de Ibiza, the customs of the Ibicencos generated suspicions among foreigners. Above all as far as the rents were concerned: “To speak of rents in Ibiza to the tourist of today is to make him mad, he distrusts everything”. They were right: “There is no lack of abuses and speculations. There are cases in which they have paid and are paying more than 100,000 pesetas per month for an apartment with two bedrooms, living room, toilet and kitchen. And furnished. Apartments, these, whose price was less than half, about 45,000 pesetas.
Luxury rents in summer tripled that amount: 150,000 pesetas for villas by the sea “with all the comforts”. Of course, while rents had risen by 25%, the most exclusive ones were in the doldrums: “For two reasons: the price nonsense and the tourism of low economic level”. Already in the summer of the last year of the decade of the 70’s there was a warning of “private houses” that also “know how to make a profit with the rooms”. “They ask up to a thousand pesetas a day,” the editor emphasized.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.