Cómo vender un piso o casa de lujo en Barcelona

How to sell luxury houses and flats? Below we have created an article focused on teaching you how to sell luxury property effectively, just as we do at BCN Advisors.

To hit your ideal selling price on a luxury property you’ll need intimate knowledge of the property and the ideal buyer – read on for 7 tips on selling luxury houses in Barcelona, Spain.

Have you noticed that specific real estate agencies sell the lion’s share of luxury houses? These real estate agencies seem to be a magnet for attracting mansions and luxury villas. But in reality, there is no magnet. They just know how to sell luxury property really well.

Selling luxury houses in Spain boils down to mastering two key aspects:

1. Understanding what makes a property ‘luxury’

2. Attracting the right buyer

Once you’ve mastered these two skills you’ll know as well as anyone how to sell a luxury property in Spain, specifically, how to sell an apartment in Barcelona (which is the majority area where we operate). In this article, we will explore the two concepts and share 7 tips on selling luxury properties from our experience in luxury real estate in Barcelona. Even so, if you have other questions, such as real estate commissions or how real estate trends in 2022 are currently fluctuating, we advise you to take a look at these other articles.

In this article, we’ll explore the two concepts and share 7 tips on selling luxury property from our experience in the luxury real estate sector in Barcelona.

What defines a ‘luxury property’ in Spain?

It’s easy to envision a luxury property in Spain as a sprawling mansion on the Costa del Sol. While Malaga is the Spanish province with the most luxury houses on the market (23% according to a market study by El Economista) the cities of Barcelona and Madrid and together dominate 25% of the luxury market.

If you’ve lived in Spain for any period of time, you’ll know that apartment living is the norm.. A huge 66% of Spanish citizens live in flats according to Eurostat. This means that in a city like Barcelona a luxury property could easily be under 150m² and even 100m² – so long as it offers the services that buyers would consider ‘luxury’.

A luxury property typically starts at a price of €4,000 per m² with a sale price of €750,000. But what makes a property luxury is often more to do with the surrounding area than the property itself.

For example, our real estate agents at Bcn Advisors in April 2022 sold the most expensive luxury apartment in Sant Gervasi, Barcelona, of the year so far. The buyer was an Asian businessman who wanted a second home in Barcelona. Since we understood what made the property stand out, and understood what features the ideal buyer wanted, this luxury ground-floor apartment sold for €4 million.

What’s the luxury property market like in Spain?

In 2021, Spain for the first time became home to a million millionaires – according to The Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse.

The luxury real estate market in Spain grew 13.3% last year despite the pandemic. Spanish cities saw the largest increase in luxury house sales, followed by the Balearic Islands.

All this points to the fact there are more luxury houses in Spain changing hands than ever before – and more buyers than ever before.

According to a market study by El Economista, there were 36,368 luxury houses on the Spanish market in 2021. Malaga, the Balearic Islands, Madrid and Barcelona accounted for 73% of all these properties. However, the report noted there was at least one house on the market for over €1 million in every one of Spain’s 50 provinces.

In our real estate market, house prices in Barcelona as a whole have been rising steadily since October of 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the luxury property market was not so affected by the pandemic as high-value houses sold in quieter, more expensive neighbourhoods like Sant Gervasi and Pedralbes in Les Corts.

7 tips – how to sell luxury houses in Spain

Selling a luxury house is different to selling other types of real estate.

If you have a high-end property to sell, everything from how you price it to how you market it has to be optimised to attract the right buyers. As mentioned previously, a house is considered ‘luxury’ if it fulfils all the necessities of the buyer.

So if you’re going to sell a luxury house in Spain, you need to understand the property as intimately as the buyer.

The higher up you go in the price bracket the more you’re going to have to make carefully chosen moves that appeal to a subset of buyers with a lot to spend and even higher expectations.

Below you’ll find 7 tips on how to sell luxury houses in Spain.

Understand the property

Most luxury homes spend approximately 54 days on the market. This number can change drastically, however, depending on how well you understand the luxury property. Understanding the particular luxury features of a home is as much about understanding the relevant property market as well as the property itself. A home is only ‘luxury’ in comparison to its competition, so think about what makes it stand out and offer to fulfil a buyer’s desire.

Understand the buyer

The first tip and this second tip alone should be enough to inform you how to sell a luxury property. If you can understand the home and the buyer, you can connect the buyer’s vision of luxury to what they will experience in the property you are showing them round. Often, Russian and Middle Eastern buyers in Spain tend to like fine finishings of gold and marble, while European buyers prefer high ceilings and more traditional features like mosaics. These broad generalisations, but it’s this kind of thinking which will help you sell a luxury house in Spain – and fast.

Work with a real estate agency who has experience in the luxury market

All real estate brokers have their specialties. It’s imperative that yours understands the ins-and-outs of selling a luxury home, particularly when it comes to pricing and advertising. If you are the owner of a luxury property, try to figure out recent successful sales closed by your chosen real estate agency.

Stage it beautifully

It’s a good idea to contract a professional stager when taking photographs or videos of a luxury property you’re selling. According to Forbes, the ‘story’ is the secret of selling a luxury house. Your ideal buyer will be more concerned with their wants rather than needs, so if you can show them how much they’ll enjoy an infinity pool with panoramic sea views, or the 24-hour concierge service in a hectic city, show it in the marketing.

Focus on the features

Especially in the cities, features are everything when selling a luxury apartment or house. In a city like Spain, concierge services, parking spaces, terraces, in-house laundry services, communal gyms, saunas and swimming pools can make all the difference. Once you can get an understanding of exactly the kind of ‘luxury’ lifestyle your ideal buyer wants, you can tailor the marketing, the visits and the communication to showcase those features.

Effective marketing

When it comes to selling a luxury home, a For Sale sign and a listing shared on your Facebook page isn’t going to attract the kind of buyer that you need. Buyers of a luxury home want exclusivity above all. Perhaps this can be achieved by an exclusive brochure, a stunning 3D online tour through the property, a cinematic drone video, or by advertising in publications that your ideal clients will exclusively read.

Finer details

If you’re going to sell a luxury home, one of the best ways to communicate this is by sharing all the finer details – the exact plot size, terrace size, floor plans, ceiling height, features, alarm systems, air-conditioning systems, electro domestic appliances, as well as detailed information about the surrounding area. The more you can communicate this in marketing and every stage of the journey, the more you’ll convince your ideal buyer.

This concludes our 7 tips on how to sell a luxury property in Spain. For more information – or for advice on selling your own luxury house in Barcelona – don’t hesitate to contact our expert real estate agents at Bcn Advisors.

How to sell a luxury property