A SEVERE stand-off between sellers and buyers has cooled the property market across Andalucia.
The latest figures from real estate portal Idealista show that asking prices across the region have surged by 18.3% over the past year to an all-time record average of €2,919 per square metre.
But hard transaction data from national notaries El Consejo General del Notariado reveals that actual finalised sale prices on signed deeds rose by a modest 3.1% over the 12-month period ending in March to €1,693 per square metre.
It means that sellers have refused to reduce their asking prices even since total sales began to slump at least two months ago, with the difference in valuations standing at a hefty 42%.
As a result of the stand-off, the total number of completed home sales across Andalucia has plunged by 8.5% as buyers flatly refuse to pay the steep premiums.
The slowdown is hitting the premium expat hub of Malaga province hardest, where portal listing expectations have reached a staggering record average of €4,158 per square metre.
Online valuations have hit a stratospheric €5,581 per square metre in Marbella and €5,389 per square metre in Benahavis.
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But official signed deeds from local notarÃas expose a severe reality check for sellers.
Final sale prices for Marbella and Benahavis sat at €4,225 and €3,889 respectively – marking a 24.30% and 27.83% gap between expectations and signed contracts.
Sellers in coastal hotspots like Estepona and Mijas are also seeking record highs of €4,307 and €3,733 per square metre respectively
Yet prime completed deals in Estepona show buyers holding the line at €3,520 per square metre, leaving over-optimistic sellers facing an 18.27% discrepancy on the market unless they drop their demands.
A similar pattern is stalling sales across Marbella’s most popular expat urbanisations.
While portal listings try to dictate a €5,581 baseline, actual transactions are crossing the finish line at €4,225 per square metre in Nueva Andalucia and Puerto Banus (24.30% lower), dropping to €3,857 per square metre along the eastern Rio Real and Elviria coast (30.89% lower).
A similar freeze is affecting transactions across Cadiz province, where portal listings climbed to a record average of €2,340 per square metre.
The disconnect is especially sharp in the expat enclave of La Alcaidesa, which logged an extraordinary 44.1% annual spike in portal listings to reach €3,700 per square metre.
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Sotogrande listings have similarly climbed to a peak of €3,789 per square metre, while sellers in La Linea de la Concepcion are seeking €1,588 per square metre.
Further east in Almeria province, online portals logged a massive 19.1% annual price jump to average €1,592 per square metre.
Sellers in coastal favorites like Vera are now asking €2,454 per square metre, while portal valuations in Mojacar climbed to €2,653 per square metre.
Nearly one in ten property deals that existed last year have simply disappeared as a result of the gridlock.
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