Adam777

Hey,

As the Title suggests this is very much a 'how long is a piece of string' question but I'm interested in people's personal experience.

I'm moving to Barcelona in the next 4-6 weeks. I'm in a fortunate position to buy a modest apartment for cash soon after arrival.

I'm presently looking online and am curious what sort of 'discounts' I should mentally be applying to the prices I'm looking at.

Obviously it depends on the Owners and/or Agents involved but in your experience people, if you were looking at something where the asking price is say 150K, would you be thinking that is a 120K property, a 130K property etc?
How 'cheeky' are Spanish sellers in your Experience.

As I say, this is a very subjective question but I'm curious what I can expect.

Regards

Adam

citizen_of_Barcelona

Congratulations on moving to the best city in the world imho. I think you have a long way if you haven't already started and identified at least which parts of town you would or wouldn't be interested in. I personally just completed a long life dream of owning a property in BCN, as an investment for the time being.
It took me about 4-5 years to get to this point but I'm not suggesting that applies to you, I faced different obstacles since I'm not an EU citizen and my sense of urgency wasn't very high, but it does take a long time believe me. I would advise you to first familiarize yourself with all parts of the city if you haven't lived extended periods there before. Then decide which areas, what kind of property you want (size, type of building. Etc.) then start searching by yourself first via one of the main online platforms like idealista or fotocasa.
this is very important before you get in touch with agencies.

It would be much easier to negotiate a property that sold directly by the owner which I eventually did. Working with agencies really complicates matters and inflates the price so I would try to avoid them although it is difficult to do so. Now, price....yes I would advise you to be bold in negotiations but really there isn't a golden rule. I managed to get only 2% discount after starting with 5%. It wasn't much but in my case I thought it was good enough considering there was no agency fees, which was factored in the price. The thing with Barcelona is that the market is always hot and with the influx of golden visa investors especially from China and Russia it is a supplier market most of the time, unless some extraordinary events like last years political crisis happens again. I don't know your goals or your price range but I'd stick to properties below 500K unless you are there for the golden visa. No reason to be in a market segment attracted for different motives.

You'll also need to hire a real estate law firm to do a due diligence before you decide on purchasing the property and later on deal with all the paper work.

Good luck!

Adam777

Hi There

Thanks for this. Well I am an EU Citizen......right now. Unfortunately being British I may not be an EU Citizen in a few short weeks. So I'm debating the realities of making an offer on a place before Brexit as opposed to after.
I'm also self-employed in a new business where it is unlikely I'll be drawing a salary for the next 12-18 months, so by my buying as opposed to renting I'm saving about 10K to 18K in rent which is important as thats about 8% to 10% of the cost of an apartment in the price range Im looking for. I'll be living off my savings for the time being (unless Im lucky and find part-time work but I suspect that might not be easy to come by for a non Spanish / Catalan speaker)

So these drivers are pushing me to buy sooner rather than later. As for areas...thats going to be somewhat dictated by price but Im spending a lot of time in Barcelona right now just walking round different areas. I'd love to live in Gracia....but it's a tad too expensive for me right now Perhaps when business kicks in

As I say, thank you so much for the response. I had not heard of Fotocasa so I'm busy combing through those listings right now and hey, I am very excited about the move and happy to see other people as happy with their choice of Barcelona as I hope to be.

All the best

Adam

Loafing Along

Idealista is another site worth checking as private sellers can advertise directly. Spanish sellers , like anywhere, will accept discounting the sales price depending on their urgency/need. Do not be afraid to make an offer is my message you may be successful.

Eric S

There is also pisos.com

- Eric S.