Little has changed in the real estate landscape after the hardest years of the pandemic: it’s complicated for anyone looking for a house because the prices are still exorbitant, almost unattainable for the pockets of most workers. On the other hand, there are luxury properties, which according to Mila González, president of the Real Estate Professionals Association, are the ones that monopolize the demand, “high-end, luxury properties, of high quality, at quite consideraable prices…” “Two, five, ten, twenty million euros…”.
“The problem is finding the luxury properties that fit the expectactions that come with those budgets, which are considerably higher and sometimes impossible to satisfy”
But one thing is that there is demand and another is that there are the properties that they are looking for. And more specifically, an offer that meets what these very demanding clients want and whose budgets “have increased” considerably in the last years: “The problem is finding the luxury properties that fit the expectations that come with those budgets, which are considerably higher and sometimes impossible to satisfy. They are looking for very large houses, without neighbors, with great views, no noise, many want them near Ibiza… Not all the conditions they set can be met. The higher the budget, the higher the demand“, says Gonzalez.
Most searching for luxury properties are foreigners
And real estate stock gives what it gives on a finite island where the owners of this type of homes do not let them go because they already earn a significant income by renting them out during the season. Most of that demand comes from foreigners and is pushing prices up: “They are rising because that demand is increasing, among other factors. Ibiza is territory that cannot be expanded, so the possibilities of building on rural land are increasingly limited, which is logical. There is a shortage of supply of houses that can meet the demand, and that results in increasing prices”.
Regarding apartments, the supply of which is still “scarce”, prices “remain high, due to the cost of land, among other things. The impact of the cost per square meter is high and construction materials have also become more expensive. As a result, a large part of the working class cannot afford to buy a home”.
However, Gonzalez recalls that “there are still urban areas to be developed, places where it would still be possible to build”. However, his association believes that “the island is at a point where not much more should be built than what is already there” and that “ what is already there should be improved and renovated. The landscape of Ibiza should be cleaned of substandard housing instead of continuing to build”.
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