First line of the sea, 22 rooms, 3,200 square meters spread over three floors.
It is the most expensive villa available these days on the Idealista real estate portal and is located in Puerto de Andratx, west of Mallorca.
It costs 79 million euros and its mortgage is around 300,000 euros per month.
It is marketed by Private Placemente Properties, which not far away has another 41 million property in Calviá.
Nearby, the real estate agency Marcel Remus offers a home designed by architect Matteo Thun with seven bedrooms and six bathrooms for 65 million euros in Son Vida, west of Palma.
A madness that is followed by other homes in Marbella, all for a price that varies between 30 and 35 million.
They seem within the reach of very few, but demand in recent years is so high that the luxury real estate market in Spain is experiencing the best moment in its history.
“Sales of houses between 10 and 20 million are increasingly common,” confirms Christopher Clover, with 54 years of experience in the sector and head of the Marbella real estate company Panorama Properties.
The Balearic Islands and Marbella are home to the vast majority of homes whose value is only suitable for the pockets of billionaires.
The two Spanish tourist and residential destinations are located at the height of the most exclusive corners of the planet, where real estate luxury is also in full swing.
They easily surpass places like Mykonos or Corfu, in Greece;
In exchange, they view Dubai with some distance, which seems to play in another league: sales of over $25 million have doubled during 2023, most of them on the artificial islands built along the coast, according to
Bloomberg
.
In one of them, Palm Jumeirah, a property of 2,000 square meters was sold last year, yet to be built, and at a cost of 136 million dollars, according to data from the real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
A look at its website can be used to find around twenty villas worth more than 20 million euros in the emirate.
The most expensive, at 40.1 million, has eight bedrooms and ten bathrooms, all unfurnished.
There are also properties worth 65 million euros in London or Colorado, in the United States.
There the most expensive property is located in Florida, where the market is also flourishing.
Its value is 295 million dollars, it has 24 hectares and has three large mansions, all on the beach.
They are far, however, from the 471 million for which the exceptional Villa Aurora in Rome went up for auction in 2022, which includes the only mural by Caravaggio and numerous works of art.
Palma is home to this house, built in 2022, which Marcel Remus sells for 13.9 million euros.
Back in Spain, the focus is on Malaga and Mallorca.
According to the report
The luxury housing market in Spain 2023
,
published by the multinational insurance company Hiscox, the Andalusian province accounts for 34% of the exclusive homes in all of Spain, while the Balearic Islands account for 33%.
Not even Barcelona or Madrid can compete with the exclusive houses in these areas.
In Idealista, for example, the most expensive house in the Spanish capital is 15 million, has eight rooms and 1,300 square meters and is in La Moraleja, while in the Catalan province the figure rises to 25 million for a home in the Pedralbes neighborhood , with 1,413 square meters and seven rooms.
In both cases, furthermore, the number of houses over 20 million euros are scarce, when in Malaga and Mallorca they are relatively common.
In the case of the islands, Ibiza also stands out, where supply is beginning to become scarce due to so much demand and prices are through the roof: of the 2,679 properties currently for sale on the Idealista website, 1,457 – 55% of the total – exceed the million euros.
And who buys all these properties?
Middle Eastern petrodollars were what, until a few years ago, paid for those homes in Andalusia.
In the Balearic Islands it was the Germans.
Now, the profile has changed.
“They are great successful businessmen around 50 years old, related to telecommunications companies, construction companies and production of materials in international demand,” they say from Panorama Properties.
The market has opened to more nationalities, especially as a result of the pandemic.
Until the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, it was the Russians who controlled a good part of the sector, but now the Dutch, Nordics, British, Swedes, Ukrainians and Swiss, above all, have taken center stage.
Also Spanish, especially from Madrid.
“Before, these buyers spent their holidays and many weekends a year in Marbella,” they explain in Hiscox, where they emphasize that now many of them have established their first residence on the Malaga coast and only travel to Madrid “occasionally to attend business meetings.”
Throughout 2023, Americans have also set their sights on the golden triangle formed by Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona.
The luxury real estate market is experiencing the best moment in its history and villas like this one, on the Costa del Sol, are sold even before they are built.
The ages of customers have also changed.
If traditionally they were easily over 50 and 60, now there is also a common profile of thirty-somethings.
“They are getting younger and younger.
Many started their businesses with the internet and have sold them for a lot of money, so now they buy the best properties.
There are also footballers,” adds Marcel Remus, a 37-year-old German who has run the Mallorcan agency that bears his name since 2009.
In 2023 he sold properties totaling 102 million euros.
In 2022 there were 134 million in total.
“People prefer to invest in houses rather than have money in the bank.
And Mallorca has it all: security, good weather, easy access by private plane or yacht.
Everything,” Remus insists.
“These clients are fundamentally looking for modern, functional houses with open spaces.
They give a lot of importance to energy efficiency and green spaces, as well as entertainment areas (spa, gym, cinema, etc.) and good connections to be able to work from home if necessary," they insist from the most luxurious urbanization in Europa, La Zagaleta, in Marbella, where they insist that the average age of buyers has dropped and there are increasingly more “belonging to the millennial and centennial generations.”
“They want privacy and quality of life,” says Jimmy Widen, founder of the agency 3SA State.
“Most buyers in Spain pay in cash, but it is also common to buy through a company and rent the property when you are not using it yourself,” insists Widen, who sold a 7.4 million villa in December. euros in La Zagaleta and currently works with several clients whose budget exceeds 15 million euros.
“I have seen a relevant change in the luxury segment of the market, with buyers appreciating and demanding higher quality.
They are willing to pay significantly more for it and some developers are already considering it in their projects,” adds Artur Loginov, executive director of another of the most important agencies on the Malaga coast, Drumelia.
During 2023 this company sold 38 large villas at an average price of 3.7 million euros.
The most expensive one exceeded 14.5 million.
“Marbella has flourished, grown and exceeded the most optimistic expectations,” explains Loginov, who believes that 2024 is on the same path and may even be better and that the year has started at a good pace.
“Marbella is on a defined path to become a unique place on the planet.”
In January they sold a house for 12.9 million that they had already sold in July, just six months before.
“The demand, in my opinion, will continue to be much greater than the supply of properties that the market will be willing to offer,” insists the specialist.
One of the luxury homes marketed by the real estate agency 3SA State in Marbella.
Many of the operations of this and other agencies are located in Sierra Blanca, on the Golden Mile of Marbella, as well as La Zagaleta.
This name is repeated over and over again among the real estate agencies or the offers found on Idealista.
In fact, the most expensive home sold in the entire history of Drumelia was there: it is called Villa Cunilam, it has 3,000 square meters plus 14,000 of property, 10 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, two kitchens, swimming pool, parking for fifteen vehicles, gym , cinema, spa and everything you want to imagine for 32 million euros.
In La Zagaleta they remember that the highest priced home that they have sold directly – there are houses and land that are owned by third parties and about which they have no data – amounted to 15 million euros.
Very close – marketed for 13.9 million – is Salucci House, which was sold for the first time in 2020 and which in 2023 changed hands again.
The last sale, very recent, is Mountain View at a price of 10.5 million euros.
The operation has left the urbanization without built
stock
, which has been overwhelmed by the enormous demand for luxury.
They are now working on developing five projects that are for sale.
Among them, Savane at 13 million and Aqua et Natura at 11 million.
Opportunities at the level of very few pockets.