Spanish Estate Agents
Spain has developed a reputation for having quite a number of shady real estate operators. Although there’s the small few that should certainly be avoided, there’s still plenty of highly trained, competent and ethical agents in the Spanish market. Finding them isn’t too much of a challenge.
The Spanish authorities deregulated the property market back in 2000. Up until then you had to be a member of the one of the two professional real estate associations - API and GIPE, to sell property.
Since 2000, basically anyone can play the role of intermediary in Spanish property transactions, regardless of professional qualifications. This is how so many “cowboy” operators have been allowed to set up.
Choosing a good agent is the key to a safe and happy investment. In Spain, the levels of competence and range of ethical standards can vary greatly from one agent to the next.
Different types of agents
The Spain, there’s a number of different types of estate agents to choose from - all offering varying levels of service and standards.
Spanish Estate Agents
Most of the Spanish agents belong to the API or GIPE, which indicates a higher level of training and professionalism. Sometimes however, these titles are abused by certain agents making it hard to know if they genuinely are a member or not.
Most Spanish agents focus on the local property market. The larger ones will sometimes have nationwide chains and networks throughout Spain and the Canaries.
Most of them don’t speak English and this is why so many UK buyers choose foreign estate agents. This is changing however. In most of the popular resort area in Spain and the Canary Islands there’s an increasing number of Spanish agents with English-speaking staff.
Foreign Estate Agents in Spain
There’s a huge number of foreign owned-and-run estate agents in Spain and the Canary Islands - English, Irish and German, in particular. They usually focus on buyers and sellers from their home countries. Buyers want to buy from someone who seems familiar, and most importantly, speaks their own language.
Over the years foreign estate agents have come under much criticism. There’s been numerous cases of incompetent and unscrupulous behavior, often involving blatantly excessive commissions and aggressive time-share style sales techniques - anything to close a quick sale.
Typically, these “fly-by-night” operators can be found in Spain’s popular resort areas, like the Costa del Sol, Costa de Almeria, Costa Calida and Costa Blanca.
Estate Agencies Based in the UK
UK-based agencies were drawn into the Spanish market after seeing the massive numbers of English people looking for property in Spain. They were also attracted by the generous commissions. The obvious advantage for the buyer is that they can get all the advice they need (in English) right on their own doorstep.
Multi-listing Networks
This is a convenient method, whereby a number of foreign agents set up a network so they can share clients, properties and commissions. It’s simple - one agent might have a buyer but not the right property - the other agency might have that property but not the right buyer.
So they collaborate, make the deal and share the commissions - it works out for everyone.
This is the ideal situation. What often happens though, is because they’re only getting half the commissions each, they often increase the commissions. So you end up paying more money for a service that’s of little extra value really.