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Estate Agent and Developer Reviews
A Survey of Eye on Spain Members
February 2007
Buying a property in Spain is for many a once in a lifetime experience. It may be the final outcome of years of saving toward the “Spanish dream”, a start of a new life or a place to retire to. Yet for so many the experience of buying in Spain can sometimes be traumatic and very stressful.
Unfortunately the Spanish property industry has been tarred with so much bad publicity over the past few years. We’ve all heard many accounts of corrupt town halls, “cowboy” estate agents and developers for which on many occasions have failed to even lay the foundations to a development for they had gleefully taken deposits from unsuspecting, mainly foreign and unaware, first-time Spanish property purchasers.
However, the market is changing and buyers are no longer taking the same “risks” that they may have done two or three years ago. In fact, whereas before the majority of buyers would have trustingly put their hard-earned money into an un-built dream home, today the buyer now actually tends to want to see what they’re getting. The trend has, as statistics show, shifted so significantly away from off-plan property purchase to resales that off-plan purchases will only account for 20-30% of the market, a situation which represents a 100% reversal of the market a mere two or three years ago.
But whilst everyone focuses on the negative aspects of buying in Spain, the majority of buyers actually have very few, if any, problems when buying here. The market is also generally much more reduced now as investors are now focusing on the emerging markets leaving the traditional buyers to pick up the pieces. Less buyers means that there’s also more work to do for the agents to find those buyers and demonstrate that they can, and will, offer the level of service and ongoing support expected of these agents.
That’s what this survey is all about.
When you decide to buy a new car you’ll probably do some research and see what others are saying about it. If you’re looking into a new book you may take a look on Amazon and read other people’s comments about it. When buying a property in Spain, which for most is the second largest purchase after their actual home, why should it be any different? If you’re going to hand over thousands of Euros to someone, you want to make sure you’re going to get the best service and product out there.
Over a two week period in January 2007 we asked the 13,000 members of Eye on Spain (www.eyeonspain.com) to fill in a short questionnaire about their agent and, if applicable, their developer. Members were asked to rate their agent / developer and comment on them too.
There are some factors that need to be taken into account in this report.
1. Eye on Spain members tend to be predominantly off plan buyers.
2. The ratings and comments given are those of the 761 respondents and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Eye on Spain.
3. Names and email addresses were provided by each of the respondents but this information is not available publicly.
4. All agents who obviously voted for themselves and rewarded themselves with top marks have not been included.
I hope that this survey will be useful to those looking to buy a property in Spain. We hope that, with the information contained within this survey and the mountain of information available widely on the Internet, buyers will be able to make informed decisions when buying their dream property in Spain.
Here we present the results in three sections:
- Summary of the survey
- Individual real estate agent ratings and comments
- Individual developer ratings and comments
We suggest that you read the summary first to fully understand the survey and the
layout of the feedback.
To your peace of mind.
Justin Aldridge
www.eyeonspain.com
Select from the links below:
Summary of the survey findings
Estate agent ratings
Developer ratings
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