Louise Cottrill
WHEN GC Property director Justin Pardon returned to Mallorca 10 years ago he says it was like ‘coming home’.
After growing up on the island Justin, the son of Australian parents, moved to the UK, making his money in London’s City as a UBS bonds trader.
But a new chapter opened in 2007 when he and brother-in-law Dino Gillibrand saw an opportunity to snap up Formentera hotel Gecko Beach Club and enter the property market.
“I was ready to get out of the City, so me and Dino who was also my business partner bought the hotel,” Justin told the Olive Press.
“The original GC Property estate agent had been based in Calvia Village for years when we took over. Now we are specialists in property sales and rentals around Calvia Village.
“We collaborate with a lot of other agents. They know that we are the people to speak to about the area around Calvia, Capdella and Son Font.”
The expert team at GC Property is kept ‘lean’ on purpose, says Justin, who operates the business alongside German sales assistant Manya.
And with properties ranging from €200,000 apartments to €16 million fincas – ‘fincas are very popular with our clients’ – there is something for everyone’s price range.
“It’s very manageable with a couple of people and you can add value focusing on a small area,” he continued.
“We’ve kept it small and specialist.”
After riding out Spain’s savage economic downturn, GC Property has continued to thrive with not even Brexit having a negative impact on sales.
And with buyers from all over Europe continuing to flock to the island, the market is in ‘semi-boom’ time.
“We are seeing a lot more non-resident buyers, but it’s healthy all round and has filtered down to residents with large amounts of cash,” Justin added.
“When Brexit hit, that had the potential to derail the market. But that wasn’t the case for us. British buyers pulling out for a few months was taken up by northern Europeans.”
Buyers, too, are more discerning in their choices than pre-crisis, says Justin, and his team takes the legal side of matters ‘very, very seriously’.
“We find out what the issues are and what the consequences may or not be and see if all parties can sit down and come to an agreement,” he said.
“Legality is something much more prevalent in today’s market.”
And as the economies of Spain and Mallorca continue to grow at a healthy rate, the island’s property market future looks bright.
“There is a fair bit of underlying demand. How far prices will go up, I don’t know,” Justin added.
“People are feeling good and there is a much healthier market. I can’t see that being derailed.”
Contact details: 0034 971 670 300/ 0034 628 19 69 39 justin@gc-property.com
