Case Study
No Sea View? Won't Buy
Our clients from Moscow were recommended to use The Property Finders by friends who had used our services the previous year. No pressure then. At first sight, their requirements seemed fairly straightforward: a three bedroom detached property, a couple of bathrooms, easy to manage garden with pool, in a quiet and private location. They had already done a bit of research about locations and knew they wanted the Costa del Sol. But there was, right at the top of their wish list, a non-negotiable item that I knew would seriously limit the options. A really big, panoramic sea view and they wouldn’t buy without one.
the brief
- Detached villa, not large
- Small garden
- Swimming pool
- In good condition
- The best sea view possible
The challenges
The budget was sufficient for hundreds of properties matching the property brief, but only if the requirement for that 180º, guaranteed forever sea view, with no possibility of it ever being blocked by further construction close by. was excluded. So, my first task was to make sure the clients understood that, to secure the view they wanted, the overwhelming majority of properties on the market, would have to be excluded, for a variety of reasons. For example, many properties with great sea views on the Costa del Sol, are actually located in the hills behind the coast, too remote for these clients, and, in many cases, too big. My clients weren’t looking for a mansion, just a comfortable villa with a garden and pool. And, while I knew there would be properties closer to the coast that would come with the required view, there would a strong possibility they would also come with a great view of the A-7 highway and road noise. But they understood the reality, that there would be just a handful of properties that matched the exact brief.
the search
Staying as close as possible to the coast but focusing on urbanisations which I knew were on rising ground, I suggested starting the search process around Estepona, both behind the town itself and heading west along the coast for about 5kms. The clients were fine with this, they had already visited the area and liked it. I was able to locate a total of eight properties to take a close look at externally, to judge the view, the immediate neighbourhood and general environment, and, listen out for road noise.
All had a good sea view but I knew I could only really assess road noise by being inside so I went ahead and made internal inspections. This resulted in five properties being shortlisted for the clients to view but I did warn them a couple did get road noise on terraces. However, I thought they were such good properties why not take a look and make a judgement on site and they agreed. So, we had a shortlist of five, four within budget and one with an asking price about 15% above, but, knowing something about the reason for sale, I was certain we could negotiate it down to within budget.
the result
We viewed all five shortlisted properties over two days. We spent a lot of time on terraces listening to noise coming off the A-7. Noise is different on different days: if there is a strong breeze off the sea, traffic noise can rise up to meet you but be lessened by trees rustling while on very still days it is much more noticeable. After viewing several properties it was agreed the property had to be noise-free. Although they really liked the affected properties they felt it would just irritate them too much and the background noise, intermittent though it was, would spoil their enjoyment of the property. And, as they rightly pointed out, it was likely to get worse over time.
So, it all depended on the only one far enough back from the A-7 to be completely noise-free, with the bonus of being in a quiet street with no passing traffic. It was a detached three bedroom, two bathroom villa on one floor, twenty years old but in very good condition with a more recent kitchen renovation, a manageable garden of 1,000m2 garden and a heated pool with retractable roof that could be opened up in summer. When I first arrived at the property during my initial external searches I hadn’t been very optimistic; it looked well-maintained, quite small but there was just no indication of what was on the other side of the property. Turned out to have the most spectacular sea view, one of the best I had seen in over 20 years in the property business in Spain and extremely rare for a house on only one floor. In fact, many houses on two levels only get the sea view from the bedroom level, nothing at ground level.
But it was over-budget. They were determined to get the house and suggested an opening bid which I thought was a bit too high and taking buyers’ costs and the inevitable counter-offer into account, would have taken them well-over budget. I always dig deep into the reasons for sale and I knew it had to be sold and quickly. So, we made a lower offer and happily paid the counter-offer, as it was under the amount the clients had suggested as their opening bid. A property with a once in a lifetime view - the image above was taken from the living room terrace, I know that because I took it.
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