Against the backdrop of a recovering Spanish property market, Barcelona has become an interesting prospect for investors and a fashionable place for Spaniards to buy a second home. Some agents are even rubbing their hands at the prospect of Brexit driving buyers into their arms as an alternative to London.
While the 1992 Olympic Games kick-started the Catalan city’s transformation, property prices fell by 30 per cent between 2008 and 2013, but demand has picked up and rents have risen by 33.3 per cent since the bottom of the market. Most significantly, it is highly affordable compared with other European cities. Property prices in the city’s most expensive central districts are less than €5,000 (£3,863) a square metre, way below the €14,695 (£11,321) a square metre of London’s Kensington and Chelsea (according to Halifax) and less than half of Paris’s popular Marais district, at about €12,500 (£9,618) a square metre.
“Barcelona is a loved destination that has been attracting British and European investors over the past two years,” says Joanna Leverett, the head of international markets at Cluttons estate agency. “There is also a strong local market, with nine out of ten Barcelonans owning their home and 85 per cent of property sales to Spanish buyers.”
Leverett says that the British lead the way among a mix of international buyers (22.35 per cent) and are especially attracted to historic apartment blocks that are being redeveloped. Entry level for these is about €250,000 for a one-bedroom, 46 sq m apartment at the back of La Rambla (the city’s most famous street) and across the road from the sea. For €400,000 you can buy a larger turnkey apartment in any of the popular districts of the harbour-front old town — the Ciutat Vella or gothic quarter — that date from medieval times and whose narrow streets feature townhouses with ancient front doors and wrought-iron balconies.
One of these is Correu Vell, a building of 13 apartments with whitewashed beams and brickwork, from €360,000 for a 50 sq m one-bedroom apartment with a 19 sq m terrace, or €460,000 for a 91 sq m two-bedroom apartment. “This [two-bedroom flat] would rent for €1,300 to €1,500 a month as a long-term let, or €150 to €200 a night as a holiday let,” says Isidre Valldosera, the head of Cluttons Barcelona.
More:A Brexit Yes Vote Could Hit Housebuilding in U.K.
Although there are plenty of Israeli and UK property funds busily buying up multiple blocks to develop, you can do up a property yourself at a (renovation) cost of €800 to €1,000 a square metre, according to Valldosera.
The London-based financial services entrepreneur Ivan Massow is in the business of buying, renovating and selling property in Barcelona. His latest home — an elegant two-bedroom, two-bathroom property in the Eixample district, the tourist and commercial heart of the city — is for sale for €1.273 million through the Lucas Fox estate agency.
“I bought in Barcelona because it’s a wonderful city that is cheap and quick to get to from London,” says Massow. “There are lots of small-development opportunities. London, in contrast, is overpriced, with impossible planning rules. Barcelona feels like a large city, but you can still walk everywhere.”
For the grand listed buildings of the wide, tree-lined thoroughfares of the Eixample (where Gaudi designed some of the ornate properties) you’ll pay €4,050 a square metre, according to Cluttons, yet properties can provide hefty yields. A three-bedroom flat in a 1946 townhouse selling for €950,000 might produce a net profit of €2,800 to €3,000 a month, says Valldosera.
More:In Monaco, 3 Luxurious Apartments Close to the Grand Prix
In one of Eixample’s best-preserved modernist buildings, Casa Bures, you can buy a 120 sq m one-bedroom flat for €1.07 million. A third of the 26 units have sold off-plan to international buyers, according to Alex Vaughan, a co-owner of Lucas Fox. “This sort of project simply didn’t exist in Barcelona before the crisis,” he says, adding that pricing is more aggressive on new-builds than resale homes. While you can buy a condominium in a glass tower in the Diagonal Mar beach district — or a villa in the upmarket suburbs of Pedralbes or Sarria — most of Vaughan’s clients prefer to spend up to €2.5 million on a property in a classic building in the Eixample. They are mostly end-users, so not worried about the city council’s moratorium on holiday rental licences.
The Eixample-based property commentator Mark Stücklin, of shario.org, which produces market reports, says there has been an uproar in the city because the moratorium on the issue of licences has been extended for another year. “While some properties continue to be rented out [without a licence], you can buy a licence on the secondary market [not the issuing authority or town hall] for €50,000 to €150,000 and apply it to a resale property.” Stücklin says that exciting emerging areas are El Poblenou, Sant Marti, Gracia and the bohemian El Born. The London-based novelist Christopher Fowler, who wrote the Bryant & May series of mysteries, bought an apartment in an 1870s building in the El Born area three years ago for €430,000. He renovated the property of eight rooms into an open-plan two-bedroom property with a mezzanine floor.
More:Cambridge Beats Oxford Again: This Time for Rising Home Prices
“I love the independent spirit of Barcelona — the Born reminds me of [London’s] King’s Cross,” he says. “It’s a great location in the old town, 15 minutes to the beach and close to theatres. The city is changing fast and Eixample’s Sant Antoni has got very hip. It’s an exciting time to be in Barcelona.” View full listing(pictured top)