Does "Buyers' Market" mean let's not buy?

BUYERS' MARKET
"A market which has more sellers than buyers. Low prices result from this excess of supply over demand. also called soft market. opposite of seller's market."


We are asked by many customers if Spain is experiencing a so called buyers' market now. We would say that this is the case, but not in all of Spain and also only for people who actually want to be buyers.

Why do we say this? It seems that people are confusing the idea of a buyers market, as defined above, where the presence of more sellers than buyers puts the buyer in a strong position, with "having the seller over a barrel"!

Think of your own property. If you were in a hurry to sell and had seen that prices had not risen in the past year or so you would certainly be more hesitant to increase your price and perhaps more open to negotiate. But you would still have a bottom line below which you would not go. And this is the same with Spanish vendors. More so in the last few months as sales have been made.

In areas such as The Costa del Sol, property supply has been limited in the last few years as a result of the unfortunate corruption problems the town hall in Marbella and Estepona had suffered. This actually translated into lower supply. However, prices were still artificially high due to the boom that took place from about 2001 to 2004. These prices had to come down.

And finally they did. If we take an area like the well known road to Benahavis, there are developments there like Gazules del Sol or Lomas de Marques, where a bargain hunter in the world of Spanish property could find an apartment for around 200,000 Sterling. This summer you would be lucky to find anything up that road for that price, the average pricing for a two bed two bath apartment there being closer to 250,000 sterling. Yet we have seen more people miss out on the deals in the last year or so because they had been "reliably informed" by the UK press that we are in a "buyers market" which they understood to mean a don't-buy-now-because-prices-will-drop-market.

Our advice is to look seriously for the property you want, be sensible with your budget and when you find the property you do like, bargain like mad for it. But don't let it go just because you think it might drop in price and don't make silly offers either, remember that a vendor has as much a right as you to be treated fairly. In the market we are seeing in the Costa del Sol at the market, we are seeing the good properties are selling and the true Buyers are having their day in the market.