Buying a house in Mallorca? In Corona times and under annoying travel and quarantine restrictions? How can Mallorca's estate agents actually keep calm?
Imagine you are a real estate agent in Mallorca. Your core clientele has always consisted of wealthy foreigners who are interested in a second home or vacation home on the island. Business is going well. But then comes Covid-19.
And with it comes the uncertainty of what to do next. Due to the drastic travel restrictions, your potential customers can no longer fly to Mallorca for a viewing appointment so easily. And they may lose the desire and interest to buy a property on the island from you. How would you react? With frustration, calmness or confidence? It would be a lie if I said that we currently have the same number of customer inquiries as before the outbreak of the pandemic, says Jürgen Dreckmann, managing director of the real estate service agency Perfect Mallorca. However, there is a significant difference between the number of potential buyers in the past and today. "The inquiries are more concrete, the purchase plans more serious".
"Huether & Partner" in Portocristo "Anyone who calls us today is serious and has a genuine interest in buying", says Managing Director Walter Hüther. It has recently happened that one of his customers has bought a property in Germany without ever having seen it himself.
In addition to a detailed description of the location and facilities, videos and photos of the property taken on site were ultimately enough for him to make a purchase decision,
says Hüther.
For the real estate agency Minkner & Partner" in Santa Ponsa, which has specialized in the sale of luxury properties for many years, the corona crisis has even led to an increase in the number of customer enquiries of up to 50 percent, according to managing director Lutz Minkner. Of course, this is no accident. As face-to-face meetings with potential customers are currently hardly possible or only possible to a very limited extent, we have expanded the digital options in terms of communication, marketing, acquisition and advice, for example via video calls and web conferences," says Minkner.
Whether the supply of second or vacation home properties has increased due to a significant rise in the number of emergency sales on the island? The supply has remained more or less the same. This also applies to prices", says Frank Steinhoff from the real estate agency "de Haas und Partner" in Artà. He currently sees a good time to invest in a property on Mallorca. "As only a few prospective buyers want to travel at the moment, anyone who is here locally has a clear advantage. Nobody knows when the situation will return to normal. Interested parties can therefore make prompt purchase offers on the spot. In my opinion, anyone who is able to travel should take advantage of this," Steinhoff advises.
"The time to buy a property in Mallorca is now as good as it was before Corona", believes Jürgen Dreckmann from Perfect Mallorca. "Behind properties that are currently being offered as supposed bargains are almost exclusively price adjustments of properties that were previously offered at exaggerated prices.
Whether offers or prices: For Lutz Minkner, the current corona crisis is primarily leading to rising demand. In Germany, we currently have 7 trillion euros worth of money lying dormant in accounts and looking for a safe haven. Investors are afraid of their money losing value and are looking for solid investment products. One of these is Mallorca real estate."
And how will the real estate market develop this year? We expect that once the travel restrictions are lifted, the strong demand will also be reflected in sales. We just have to hold out for a few more months", believes Lutz Minkner.
"Of course, everything depends on the COVID development and the associated restrictions. However, we assume that the travel situation will improve from May at the latest. We are therefore certain that we will be very busy from summer onwards. Overall, 2021 should then be at a level between that of 2019 and 2020", says Frank Steinhoff of "de Haas & Partner".
"One of the possible future scenarios is that potential customers from Germany will want to get rid of all their money as quickly as possible. Or buy properties here with cheap mortgages and drive up prices", says Jürgen Dreckmann from Perfect Mallorca. "But it could also be that economic problems lead to an increasing need for liquidity among property owners in Mallorca, supply increases and prices come under pressure".
But one thing will always remain in his opinion: "The longing of many Germans to own a property on the island".
