Guide to Property for Sale or Rent

 Where to advertise your property for sale in Spain, has now become a critical decision. Should you choose your local estate agent, an International agent, a free property web site or pay a small fee to advertise the property yourself?

With the current onslought of the ‘Credit Crunch’ affecting property sales worldwide, and the strengthening Euro value against the Pound, it’s difficult to see where you could advertise your property, and achieve a sale at a reasonable price.

BuyMyVilla.com offers an excellent opportunity to advertise your property for sale in Spain, without paying the large agency fees and reach many more potential buyers than the local agent. BuyMyVilla.com is a web site where owners can sell their property direct, or For sale by owner (as it’s known). Is it like all the others that advertise properties for sale in Spain?…

What makes this site different from others where you can even advertise for free? Well, as with almost everything else, you get what you pay for! Free sites offer an automated listing service where your property in Spain is merely placed onto the database with very little thought about what would attract a buyer. BuyMyVilla.com places emphasis on the presentation of the property and, possibly more importantly, how a search engine will read the property details.

The search engines are key to how many people view your property on the web. You can have the prettiest property at the lowest price, but if no-one knows it’s for sale and it’s hidden among thousands of other properties, it won’t be seen. If you advertise the property for sale in spain, on a site that carefully words the advertisement, your advert will be seen and you have just increased your chances of selling your villa in Spain.

Just advertising on the web isn’t the answer any more, you need to advertise on a site that will be seen and will be in the top ten searches like “buy a villa” or “buy a villa in spain”. Try the phrases on your favourite search engines.

Try BuyMyVilla.com to advertise your property for sale in Spain, many have already.

Rustic property in Mallorca comes in all shapes, sizes, locations and prices.

Gatehouse International can offer rustic property in Mallorca from as low as €220,000 up to the luxury mallorca villas in the millions. The Mallorcan property market specialists, “Mallorca Villas for Sale” have a large selection on their website.

The credit crunch doesn’t seem to have affected real estate in Mallorca as much as most othe second home destinations. The market has remained buoyant, but there are bargains to be had as motivated property sellers still exist.

One such motivated seller is a relatively small detached rustic property. I can be bought for the bargain price of €360,000  as the owners have interests elsewhere. The location is faboulous, being relatively near the coast with distant sea views through a pine tree valley. The beaches of Cala Millor and Sa Coma are only abot 2 miles away. If you have been looking for that elusive bargain property for sale in Mallorca, at a very reasonable price, then this may be the one for you. More details and pictures here…

For those of you seeking a much larger property for sale on Mallorca, we have a have a selection of rustic villas. Search through around 560 properties for sale ……More details and pictures here… 

If you are looking to buy a rustic property in Mallorca, email / call Zoe on 01480 434290, and let her know your requirements. She will then search for the best deals that match your requirements and email the details to you.

Mallorca Property market - 2008 PredictionsThe Mallorca real estate market seems to have weathered the global ‘cash crisis’ well so far. Mainland Spain has seen a steady decline in buyers from the heady heights of early 2007. Of course, there are exceptions, as Polaris World in the Murcia region continues to sell well.

Unlike parts of mainland Spain, Mallorca has not suffered from an over-supply of speculative builds. As a consequence, demand, especially for quality apartments, is in balance with or exceeding supply. Coupled with the lack of good plots and restrictions on licences, prices for quality property in sought after locations are still likely to rise 7-10%, depending on area.

Quarterly statistics released by the Spanish Ministry of Housing bear out this trend. Furthermore, although housing starts throughout Spain had fallen generally by 33-37% in the 2nd quarter of 2007 (and by as much as 64% in Andalusia), planning approvals in the Balearics actually rose by 21% in the same period.

Beach front and Golf Front line property will remain an excellent investment, even more so if there is direct sea access, as coastal authorities are tightening up. They are not introducing new laws, simply implementing existing ones. Quality builds and properties in prime locations will continue to be in demand. Simply put, any property for sale in Mallorca with a prime view will always sell, and there will always be someone prepared to pay for the best.

The Ministry of Transport has allocated about half its annual budget to extend the rail network link from Palma via Inca and Manacor to Arta. Unlike Pollensa or Cala D’Or, which are popular with UK tour operators and villa rental companies, the north east of the island around Arta is not well known amongst UK buyers. Prices are still 10-15% cheaper than elsewhere, but not for long.

Lower priced properties will continue to find buyers, provided they remain at the lower level. Mallorca is an ‘aspirational’ buy and the lower priced properties will always be in demand. The middle priced Mallorcan property owners will need to be more patient than usual this year, and the higher priced luxury Mallorcan Villas will always find buyers.

Property in Mallorca is not cheap - the type of investors attracted to the island is driven mainly by lifestyle changes rather than for short term profit. Together with all the benefits of buying in Spain in general - short flight times from European destinations, an outdoor lifestyle, a safe child and family friendly culture - Mallorca offers that bit more. Mallorca seems to offer so much more than it’s immediate competitors.

View properties for sale in Mallorca

Save Money On Currency Exchange.Gatehouse International has partnered with a well known Foreign Exchange dealership in order that our customers can have the benefit of the Best possible rates at any time, with the least inconvenience.

We aim to provide the very best exchange rates, therefore saving you money. Our Foreign Exchange partners will designate you your own currency dealer who will guide you through the whole transaction and explain the various methods of purchasing foreign currency, to help you get that better exchange rate!

If you are even considering buying in a currency that is different from your source bank, it will be worth your while just getting a free quote from one of our Partner’s dealers, at no cost to you.
Foreign Exchange prices vary every few seconds. Over a very short period, the price of your chosen home can vary wildly. By the time that you come to complete the purchase, we have known people to have lost out by as much as £10,000 just due to exchange rate fluctuation! Of course, prices can go up as well as down. However, in order to minimise the risk, we recommend that all clients at least register with us and get a quote today so that they can compare it with their bank.

Once you’ve decided on your dream property, you may possibly need foreign currency to make your purchase. Gatehouse International can provide you with:

• Superior commercial foreign exchange rates
• No fees or commission
• No telegraphic transfer costs
• Your own currency dealer
• Forward buying of currency
• Opening of foreign bank accounts
• Regular monthly payments for pensions and mortgages.

More on this …

A trickle of second homes for sale turns into a flood.

The credit crunch has started to take effect on the second home market in countries where there are many new developments just coming to the stage of completion. When purchase decisions were made two years ago and consumer confidence was high, properties were increasing in value due to high demand, cheap local loans and high equity values in the primary homes.

It´s very different now. Many new developments are now coming up to the completion stage and the developers are asking their buyers to part with the balance owed, in return for the title deeds and the keys. Some buyers are choosing to cut their losses and sell for below perceived market value, but many remain in denial. The reality is that, to sell, offers of 20% below the asking price are likely and should be considered in most circumstances. The alternative is to keep the properties and hope to rent them out. Bluntly, there are not enough prospective tenants to fill all of these holiday homes.
For those, with property overseas in “Euroland”, there is the prospect of mentally off-setting some losses against the rise in the strength of the Euro against the Pound. In some cases, most people will get 10-15% more Pounds for their Euros when converting money back to the UK as the Euro has strengthened considerably against the pound over the last year.

Where´s the good news? It is predicted that the buyers who still exist will begin a buying frenzy this summer. The really smart buyers will pick from the crop now. If you have a property to sell, simply advertise it on a For Sale By Owner site like BuyMyVilla.com for just a few pounds, avoid the estate agency fee, and let the savvy buyer contact you direct. They´re out there, you just need to let them know your property is for sale.

Motivated property sellers used to be a rare find.

Over the last few years, while the property market has been in the ascendancy, property sellers only became motivated when they saw something they wanted. With the housing market rapidly adjusting itself in the UK, property sellers have suddenly become more motivated by other factors including the desire to ‘offload’ surplas property portfolios before they have negative equity.

Why would someone buy now? Buyers can get a bargain basement price when purchasing from a motivated seller. In many cases, witnessed recently, sellers have been happy to sell at less than their purchase price 2 years before. Most of the sellers are seeking to avoid re-possession and the resultant ‘black mark’ against their name. In one case, a client on our For Sale By Owner site , www.buymyvilla.com , had 3 properties to sell on one development. He advertised just one on the site and has met with great success. He now has a lawyer interested in buying all 3.

The method seems to be working for the sellers, but the buyers are going out of their way to find what the industry now calls ‘motivated sellers’.

For a cheap, bargain, property visit Motivated Property Sellers for a selection, and deal with the property owners direct.

www.buymyvilla.com has just been relaunched due to a rising demand from individuals wishing to save money on selling fees and wishing to retain control of their own property sale. For Sale By Owner ( FSBO ), as it’s commonly termed, is not a new concept. As the use of web sites has rapidly progressed over the last few years, there have been a number of web sites claiming to be the ‘next big property site for properties for sale by owner’. In reality, very few are professionally run, by Realtors (Or estate Agents in European parlance). Professional agents provide one part of the insight required to make a property web site work. Understanding of buyer’s needs on a web site is the other main requirement.

BuyMyVilla.com, fulfills both of those requirements. The site owners have been selling property since 1986 and have run successful property web sites for 10 years. The site has been designed with simplicity of use as a paramount feature. Property owners can upload their own property details and up to 12 pictures. Once a modest advertising payment of just €149 has been received, the site administrators will feature the owner’s property on the web site.

How does this differ from some other For Sale By Owner sites? Well, once you’ve paid the advert fee, the property can remain on the site for a year and there are no other costs to pay when you sell the property. The buyers contact the property owner direct and the buyer and seller deal directly with each other. No middlemen. No extra cost. Thousands saved.

Of course the site has many other features including useful advice and contacts, together with an easily searchable database. The most useful feature from a prospective buyer’s point of view is the site’s regular updates of properties are specifically what the buyer has registered their interest in. All the buyer has to do is register as a member, fill in their requirements and they will be updated regularly with only the properties that suit the saved search. If the requirements alter, they can log-in and make a new search that can be saved.

This feature sells more properties and saves the buyer’s time searching.

To advertise on BuyMyVilla.com, payment can be made in a number of easy ways including credit and debit cards through PayPal.

Visit BuyMy Villa.com to register for property updates, or if you wish to sell and save thousands.

Beach house for sale in Sant Elm Mallorca - You can’t get closer to the sea.

Beach properties rarely come up for sale in Mallorca. This is a fantastic example of just how you can buy a villa in Mallorca and ‘have it all’. With its four terraces and views over Dragonera Island and with direct sea access this house offers incredible holiday feeling.

The main house is a reasonable size of about 150 sqm and was completely modernized a few years ago. There’s 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a very beautiful and bright living room with open fireplace and kitchen. It is possible to extend this area and build an apartment of about 30 sqm.

On the ground floor there’s a separate guest apartment of about 40 sqm with small kitchen and terrace, also with access to the beach. The house comes with garage and own boat garage.

All this for just €850,000. (about $1.293M, or £650,000). View this property here
Or many more properties for sale in Mallorca here.