# Advertised home prices



## src6 (Aug 15, 2016)

We are going to be renting the first year or two, but do plan to purchase eventually. Looking at listed prices (Idealista/etc), I'm trying to get a feel for how realistic they are. Obviously, houses are almost always listed for a high "aspirational" price, and in the States you might generally see about a 5-10% spread between asking and selling price unless there are serious issues.

How do list prices in Spain usually compare to sale prices (generally)? I get the feeling that the market is still a bit depressed, and there may much more room for negotiation but I haven't been able to get any real numbers.

We are looking in Torre Del Mar and the surrounding area, if that makes a difference.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

src6 said:


> We are going to be renting the first year or two, but do plan to purchase eventually. Looking at listed prices (Idealista/etc), I'm trying to get a feel for how realistic they are. Obviously, houses are almost always listed for a high "aspirational" price, and in the States you might generally see about a 5-10% spread between asking and selling price unless there are serious issues.
> 
> How do list prices in Spain usually compare to sale prices (generally)? I get the feeling that the market is still a bit depressed, and there may much more room for negotiation but I haven't been able to get any real numbers.
> 
> We are looking in Torre Del Mar and the surrounding area, if that makes a difference.


Can't give you any indications for that area but it is/was a common practice by some agents to sell their services to sellers that they can get a better price than other agents to try to get a sole agency deal (doesn't often work). Check various other agents to see if others have the same property at a different price, do so online and anonymously if you can to avoid an agent claiming commission off you when you go to a different agent. Many agents in Spain charge commission to both buyer and seller.


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## src6 (Aug 15, 2016)

baldilocks said:


> Can't give you any indications for that area but it is/was a common practice by some agents to sell their services to sellers that they can get a better price than other agents to try to get a sole agency deal (doesn't often work). Check various other agents to see if others have the same property at a different price, do so online and anonymously if you can to avoid an agent claiming commission off you when you go to a different agent. Many agents in Spain charge commission to both buyer and seller.


Thanks. We aren't anywhere near the point of looking at specific properties, just trying to get a feel for the general budget we will need. If house listings are generally within (X)% of realistic selling prices, then we can set a target to work towards.

One of my big fears is being able to rent a house that is much better than one we can afford to buy. While we may end up just renting for the foreseeable future, we don't want to have to do a second lifestyle reset after we are starting to feel settled in Spain.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

src6 said:


> Thanks. We aren't anywhere near the point of looking at specific properties, just trying to get a feel for the general budget we will need. If house listings are generally within (X)% of realistic selling prices, then we can set a target to work towards.
> 
> One of my big fears is being able to rent a house that is much better than one we can afford to buy. While we may end up just renting for the foreseeable future, we don't want to have to do a second lifestyle reset after we are starting to feel settled in Spain.


We took the point of view that all the money you pay out in rent could go towards the buying of a house and the various expenses, etc. We didn't rent, just bought but, of course, you have to do lots of research so that you know exactly what you want and more importantly what you don't want.


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## Navas (Sep 2, 2012)

I think the market is picking up a bit in some areas. We are paying 10% below the original asking price but this will include all furniture and bits and pieces like an iron, vacuum cleaner etc.
Make sure you allow 11-12% (I think it's about that) above the cost of the property for taxes, fees etc.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

We have recently purchased and we found a pattern in the pricing:

Private sellers habitually were asking around 15 - 20% more for their properties than similar properties for sale through agents.

We put this down to the fact that agencies want to sell quickly and convince their vendors of the true market price, whereas the private seller does not have this "voice of reason", maintaining instead their own personal view of what their property is worth.

In our case we looked at 4 different flats in the same "urbanización". Taking the cheapest as the baseline, the most expensive was 25% more expensive. The two cheaper ones were with agencies, the two more expensive ones were private.

We discarded two of them for personal preference reasons, leaving one private and one agency sale to choose from. The private one was for sale at 13% higher price than the agency one and did not have air conditioning nor underground garage whereas the cheaper one had air con and 2 underground parking spaces.

The owner of the more expensive one called us and asked why we had not bought her property and she was truly shocked when we told her that we had paid less and got all of that.

Of course we paid almost the full asking price for the one we bought, but still saved a lot over the other option. So you have to look at each case on its merits.


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## SandraP (Apr 23, 2014)

We are looking at a house in Ontinyent, it has just come on the market and the seller wont accept offers. There could be a slight issue with the upstairs not being on the catastral and the path from the house to the road is not owned by the house owner. We will pay full asking price if owner pays all the legal stuff to sort that out. Another property is listed at 145000 euros, but the English owner wants £100000 for it. Looks like it all depends on the seller.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

SandraP said:


> We are looking at a house in Ontinyent, it has just come on the market and the seller wont accept offers. There could be a slight issue with the upstairs not being on the catastral and the path from the house to the road is not owned by the house owner. We will pay full asking price if owner pays all the legal stuff to sort that out. Another property is listed at 145000 euros, but the English owner wants £100000 for it. Looks like it all depends on the seller.


We had the same issue when we bought and part of the deal was the vendors paid for the house be in a legal state prior to our purchase. They did this and our lawyer chaecked all was ok , it cost them a few thousand euros but they were happy to do it to get the sale. We also paid less than the asking price by 12 % , this was a private sale.ps we are not far from Ontinyent and were there the other day ;-)


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## SandraP (Apr 23, 2014)

We were near you the other day Maureen, we went to Anna for the day. 
We are looking at it as a permanent home and it is not an investment, if we are happy with the price then it is worth it to us.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

SandraP said:


> We were near you the other day Maureen, we went to Anna for the day.
> We are looking at it as a permanent home and it is not an investment, if we are happy with the price then it is worth it to us.


We love the area we are living in , its not for everyone but we have found the village to be really friendly and a great place to live , we too were looking for a permanent home and didnt have investment in mind and yes to get that its worth it to compromise , let us know when you get sorted , you are welcome to visit us in Chella ;-)


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## src6 (Aug 15, 2016)

Thanks for all the feedback, it helps a lot. I guess a lot of my uncertainty is the fact that rental prices are so low compared to what a similarly priced house would be in the States. For instance, a house renting for 1200 euros might also be listed for sale at 450000 euros. In the States, a $450K house would rent for at least $2500 or more. It made me question if the list prices were wildly inflated, or if the price/rental ratio was just that far off from what I'm used to.

While we might be renting a 1200 euro house, we won't be buying a 450K euro house, so we want to make sure our expectations were in line with reality.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Overandout said:


> We have recently purchased and we found a pattern in the pricing:
> 
> Private sellers habitually were asking around 15 - 20% more for their properties than similar properties for sale through agents.
> 
> ...



Yes I've noticed some agents seem to make an effort to price their properties properly, whereas they used to just ask the vendor what price they wanted to put it on at. However agents obviously have their fees, so a property sold directly from the vendor "should" be cheaper.


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## SandraP (Apr 23, 2014)

Thank you Maureen, we are only here on holiday, dont speak Spanish and have been made to feel really welcome by everyone in town, people have really tried to help us and taken time with us. We have definitely chosen the right area for us.
We are viewing the house again in the morning and hopefully we will be able to open a non residents bank account before we return home to put our house on the market.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I live close to Torre del Mar. It seems to me that there is a huge variation in asking prices - some vendors are asking very high prices (and I have noticed in some cases a return to the old practice that if a house was for sale last year and hadn't sold by the year end, the price is increased the following January! That happened with one ático I had been looking at, and although it had been for sale for more than a year they still increased the asking price by €70k this January.) Others seem very reasonably priced. I saw a reformed town house in my town come on to the market a couple of weeks ago for €59,950 and although photographs can be deceptive, it looks to be in better condition and a lot more modern than many houses advertised at almost twice the price.

I think all you can do is keep watching the sites like idealista.com and kyero.com during the period you are renting and comparing properties of the type you would be looking for and get a feel for what the asking prices are like. As to how negotiable those asking prices would be, I have no idea.


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## SandraP (Apr 23, 2014)

We asked to view a property with Parasol and the morning we were meant to view the owner put the price up by 50000 euros! We have been told it could be because we are English. Their loss, we are going ahead with another property with Parasol.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

SandraP said:


> We asked to view a property with Parasol and the morning we were meant to view the owner put the price up by 50000 euros! We have been told it could be because we are English. Their loss, we are going ahead with another property with Parasol.


Strangely enough, a similar thing happened to us. We viewed a house which, whilst wasn't exactly what we wanted, I thought warranted a second viewing. When the agent came to pick me up to take me for the second viewing, she said "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but the vendor has said we made a mistake regarding the price and it is actually €10k higher (and that was more than 10% of the asking price!). The vendor was British, by the way. I went ahead with the second viewing just to waste his time, and as it happened we know the people who actually did buy it a while later as it's very close to the house we did buy, and they have had quite a few problems with it.

The vendor who tried this trick on, and his partner, drank their way through all their money over the next few years and had to return to the UK penniless. Karma!


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## john-in-seattle (Jun 17, 2016)

'seller won't accept offers' meaning that they'll only accept their full price (no negotiation)?


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## Andyl62 (Jul 16, 2016)

As the previous replies have stated, it really depends on the individual sellers desire to make a sale and the condition of the property. I cannot comment in the area you mentioned, but we have recently purchased a property near Mojacar for a price if 18% below asking price, but as its been empty for around 2 years it does now need some cosmetic tlc to be carried out. I guess it's trying to strike that balance between a good price for purchasing without offending the seller. Good luck if you purchase


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

john-in-seattle said:


> 'seller won't accept offers' meaning that they'll only accept their full price (no negotiation)?


You've got it but you can always try if you are face to face with the seller. Some agents look to maximise their fee so try to make prices non-negotiable. You need to compare prices with others in the same locality of a similar quality. It may be that the one you are interested in is at a lower price for a quick sale and, of course, if the seller has already reduced the price to the lowest she/he will accept, then there will not be much negotiation room. Good luck but don't try to knock the seller down too much, to way below what is being asked, you may find that petty reprisals are taken out on you later.


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## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

When I was looking at apartments in Barcelona I found that apartments usually sold for about 20-25% less than asking. Some sellers are absolutely delusional about their asking prices. I see many properties that have been on the market for years. 

Further, agents like to pretend that there is more interest in a property than their is. Very often I would have interest in a property that had been sitting on the market for a year or two. When the agent showed it to me, they would act like there was a full priced offer coming within days, and tell me I better hurry and make an offer. A year later the property would still be unsold.

Another trick agents employ is to claim that a property has been sold when the owner has really just given up and taken it off of the market.


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## PNE Matt (Feb 28, 2016)

I have recently had an offer accepted for £25k euro- the house was listed at £40k euro, like others have mentioned it is down to the sellers circumstances and what YOU feel the property is worth.
No harm in being cheeky!


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Pounds or euros?

Either way, have you checked the cadastral value to avoid getting a tax bill later because the price was 'too low'?


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## PNE Matt (Feb 28, 2016)

snikpoh said:


> Pounds or euros?
> 
> Either way, have you checked the cadastral value to avoid getting a tax bill later because the price was 'too low'?


Hi Snikpoh,
Our solicitor is taking care of the legal side of things, however the price is fair and the 40.000 euro asking price was very high given the the circumstances of the property. Out of interest how would I find out the cadastral value of the property and how would I know it is correct, as surely many different factors are involved such as state of repair, land size etc?
Regards Matt


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

PNE Matt said:


> Hi Snikpoh,
> Our solicitor is taking care of the legal side of things, however the price is fair and the 40.000 euro asking price was very high given the the circumstances of the property. Out of interest how would I find out the cadastral value of the property and how would I know it is correct, as surely many different factors are involved such as state of repair, land size etc?
> Regards Matt


There should be an IBI (Council Tax) bill for the property and your solicitor should have a copy of it in order to ensure that the tax is paid up to date. The catastral value of the property is shown on that bill.

It does not matter if you feel the price is fair or not. If the price you paid does not match the official "valor tasación", then it is quite possible that following completion Hacienda can issue a demand for complementary transfer tax (the difference between the amount of transfer tax you paid and the amount which should be due based on the valor tasación.

This article explains it, but note that the 7% figure shown for the transfer tax is out of date now.

http://www.abacotaxes.com/complementary-tax


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## Moyra (Aug 10, 2014)

Lynn R
Thank you for the artical. We are looking to buy next year (I can't wait, taking Spanish lessons in preparation) and this artical ensures we pay the correct tax. 
Moyra


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## Roy C (Sep 29, 2012)

Do you ever get a rebate on the tax if they think you paid over the odds for the property?


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