hrothgar

I've not seen any info on this in any previous threads on buying. When buying resale property in Spain, is the price negotiable as in the UK. In other words can you try and get it reduced?

mikelincs

You can try. Be careful, try a number of estate agents, the property may be on several books, and the prices aren't always the same, there is no limit in Spain to the number of agents you can use at a time, and only the one who negotiates the sale gets paid, so people put their property with several agents.

BigD

Yes ! we negotiated and got the price reduced by 10,000 euros.
If it has been on the market for a while they will be glad of a decent offer.
Worth a try what have you got to lose.
If you don't ask you don't get.

Good Luck.

hrothgar

great - thanks.

malagaman

Property prices are very overpriced at the moment and it's suggested that you start with an offer of 20 per cent less than the asking price. Bear in mind that a lot of property on the Costa's has been for sale for a very long time and by that I mean in some cases years.

hrothgar

Great - thanks for that tip.

Solarwhizz

Estate agents will be your biggest problem, some are so greedy they wont negotiate, as they have probably overinflated the price by a huge amount,
Example work colleague of mine put his house on market for 350K€. he then saw his house on the agents website for 430k€, and then we wonder why places dont sell!!. I would offer as low as you can, and if possible get to the owner and make an offer direct!!

Hillybilly

Everybody, buyers and sellers, should ask estate agents what their commission charges are.
By law (ha ha) an estate agent should have a written selling agreement with a vendor stating both the price agreed to the vendor and the agent's commission and any buyer can request sight of this.
IMHO no vendor should put their property on the market with an agent who doesn't declare their commission.
So, when negotiating on price (eg after a survey has revealed things about the property, such as no septic tank!), both vendor and agent can be asked to be flexible.

the sun is shining

HI,
We looked at a house before we got the one we did and viva estates said he would not reduce from 189,000, However our friends new the bloke and he said he would be happy accepting 150,000 most of it is the estate agents fees.
Also another house we looked at was from a spanish lady and as soon as she new we was English she added on 20,000 just never part with money until you have a good lawyer.

GCM

Be very careful it's a minefield out there.

Many villas near me have been up for sale for 2 years (or more!).

One of the problems here in Spain is that the estate agents don't value a property - instead the owners tell the agents what they want to get in their pocket.

The agent then adds their commission which can be 10% on top.

If the owner wants too much then the property just doesn't sell of course because it is overpriced - what a crazy system!

You are best looking for signs on properties where you can buy and talk direct with owners - best way to get a 'bargain'.

Mark

wheatsheaf42

why are there so many properties for re-sale? Is there a problem with your area or have the Brits decided to sell up for some reason? I gather there are so many properties being built this will only add to the availability out there and sooner or later prices will have to come down.

Lynn R

When we were looking for a house we had no success in negotiating the price down (and we weren't trying for huge reductions). Having learned more since about the way estate agents operate I strongly suspect that they did not even put the question to the owners as it would have been their commission that was reduced.

I've seen quite a few instances where, if a property had remained unsold for the best part of a year, then at the start of the New Year the price increased rather than went down - because property prices in the area had supposedly increased by x%, the agents automatically put up the price of everything on their books regardless of the fact that no one had been interested at the old price - weird, or what?

And as for prices increasing as soon as it is realised an English buyer might be interested, the only time that happened to me was when I requested a second viewing of a house owned by an Englishman. The price mysteriously increased by 10,000E overnight. I went ahead with the second viewing just to waste his time (not something I would normally do but I was so annoyed) and needless to say it wasn't the one we bought.

GCM

I live in a desirable area but because prices have gone up so much here (Costa Blanca) the only people who can buy in are not Spanish but northern Europeans (mainly Brits.) - therefore the market is very transient, in other words people move on a lot for many many different reasons.

Brits come, Brits go, some love it, others don't take to it.

But there is a lot more property on the market than normal - I'm just guessing but I think people are trying to sell while they think the market may have peaked - in reality they may find they are slightly too late.

And yes - with all the new villas and apartments, in the end prices surely will have to stabilize or maybe move down.

Mark

wheatsheaf42

Funny that we moan so much about the fees of estate agents over here- parasites and all that- at 2% sole agency but when you read about Spanish practices ours seem a paragon of virtue!

mikelincs

Yes, but at least here when you have put down tha initial deposit, the seller can only withdraw by paying a penalty, so much less chance of being gazumped. Wish that sort of thing happened in the UK.