The British real estate consultancy Savills has entered the business of selling and renting luxury homes in Spain with the opening of its first office in Barcelona, according to the director of the consultancy in the Catalan capital, Anna Gener. Savills is the leader in this market in the United Kingdom, where it carries out 30% of the operations, and operates in countries in Asia, the Middle East, the United States, as well as in key European areas for luxury second homes, such as the Côte d'Azur or the Alps. The group is starting its activity in this area in other countries, such as Portugal, where it has opened offices in Lisbon and Porto, and Italy, with offices in Milan, Rome and Palermo.
“We have synergies with our international network, with other departments of our structure in Spain, such as architecture, valuations or building management, and with the same consulting activity that we carry out in other areas such as office rental,” he noted. Gen.
The director of Barcelona's luxury housing area, Pablo Balea, explained that the firm begins operating this week with nearly a hundred properties and a team of 12 people, which it plans to expand to more than 65 in five years, when it expects achieve a market share similar to the British one and sales of 250 million euros.
Barcelona is one of the European cities where the prices of luxury homes are lower and therefore “have more room to rise,” said Balea: they are 8% lower than those of Madrid, 42% compared to Berlin, and 65% compared to London. For this reason, Savills will focus on homes starting at 750,000 euros, with a focus on the Eixample and the Front Marítim, with the aim of reaching other surrounding towns such as Sant Cugat or Sant Just Desvern in a second phase. "We have a good opportunity, because owners of luxury homes who want to sell them now have to choose between 'boutique' real estate agencies, very specialized but with little structure, or larger but very general real estate agencies," said Balea.
The entry into the marketing of luxury homes has led the real estate company to break the commercial agreement it had with Lucas Fox, with which it will now maintain “a relationship like the one we have with other agencies,” Balea explained.
Savills is also considering opening luxury housing brokerage offices in other cities, including Madrid and Malaga. The consulting firm, listed on the London Stock Exchange, has 700 offices in 70 countries and a global workforce of 40,000 people, 560 of them in Spain.
Barcelona, according to Balea, is an ideal location for the group due to the high interest it arouses among international buyers and the appeal it arouses among “digital nomads”, who value the climate, quality of life and good communications: a study The consulting firm itself ranks it as the seventh most attractive in the world for these professionals.
