La Zagaleta mansions in Spain are trading on the rise: prices have gone up 30%
La Zagaleta: two years after the pandemic.
Its neighbors are mostly foreign billionaires with the capacity to pay between 5 and 15 million euros for one of their villas.
La Zagaleta is the great luxury urbanization of the Costa del Sol. We can even say that its one of the best utbanizations in Europe. 900 hectares of square metres totally armoured to guarantee the privacy and security of the owners of its 260 mansions.
La Zagaleta used to be an old hunting ground on the outskirts of Benahavís mountains in Andalucia. It has been converted into a super exclusive luxury resort.This area has received a great boost after the pandemic. In this two years after the pandemic, villa prices have increased between 20% and 30% and plots between 10% and 12%.
The enormous shortage of product for sale and an eager demand to buy have triggered real estate operations and have positioned La Zagaleta in the spotline for architects and interior designers in Marbella and Europe. In the first semester of the year real estate sales have overcomed the 60 million euro digits. More than 20 properties sold, which means the best year start ever. La Zagaleta has triplicated its numbers before pandemic times. And it is expected is to close 2022 second semester even with a bigger number than the one obtained in the six first months of the year.
To give us an-idea about the properties background, in 2021 the resort experienced one of its best years tripling the number of transactions and exceeding the average of 15 operations in the two years prior to the pandemic having a total of 45 sales. Specifically, in villas The volume almost doubled numbers reaching a total of 24 sales, and in plots it multiplied by 7 going from an average of 4 sales to the 13 sold in 2021. This means having 3 sales per month.
“This cycle of economic recovery, with GDP growth in the euro zone, the existing liquidity in the markets and the less attractive profitability of other financial products, will continue until 2025,” explains Jacobo Cestino, CEO of the company of the urban development of La Zagaleta.
The pandemic has brought a big generational change. Until now, the demand was led by senior businessmen aged 60-70, while now there are many businessmen between 35 and 40 years old who come with their families and who, although they travel a lot throughout Europe, want their children and their families to study and live in Marbella, which has a wide range of international schools and private health clinics”, explains Cestino. This new generations have modernized La Zagaleta properties and are focused on having a breathtaking interior design, top security and find in these mansions a place of retreat and serenity.
Living in La Zagaleta is within the reach of very few pockets. The sale prices are heart-stopping, but so are the rentals: between 15,000 and 20,000 euros per month for long stays –more than a year– and short stays –maximum three months– and between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per night in high season, as published by El Confidencial.
This rental services is a business that La Zagaleta launched just a year ago “with a very positive balance,” according to Cestino, who acknowledges that in some cases, tenants have ended up becoming owners.
30 years of La Zagaleta luxurious urbanization.
To find out the origin of La Zagaleta, we have to go back to the late 80s and early 90s. Originally, it was the hunting estate of Adnan Khashoggi a Saudi origin businessman who bought the plot from Henry Roussel, a well-known French businessman and father-in-law of Cristina Onassis the heiress to the empire created by her father the shipowner Aristotle Onassis.
La Baraka plot was acquired by a group of investors led by a Spanish businessman called Enrique Pérez Flores (who died in 2020). In 1991 Enrique founded “La Zagaleta” company.
Located in a privileged environment of 900 hectares in the Marbella mountains, there are currently more than 260 homes built with a total area of between 3,000 and 10,000 square meters each.
The vision
La Zagaleta´s initial plan contemplated the construction of 3000 homes, but Enrique Pérez Flores proposed only 420.
With this low figure, today the houses are surrounded by abundant and well-kept vegetation overviewing the Mediterranean, Africa and Gibraltar coast line, lakes and the two 18 hole golf courses.
La Zagaleta is the most exclusive ‘resort’ in Europe. Despite the fact that it represents a 900 hectares area only 400 homes are planned to be built and 260 are finished. The rest of the land is yet to be developed, explains Cestino. In fact, there are still many plots for sale where to build your dream home in Marbella.
The vast majority of the new villas for sale are in the hands of La Zagaleta.
A lot of Zagaleta newcomers, decide to work with different architectures and the best interior designers from Marbella to make bespoke spaces and fullfil all their requirements for accomplishing their dream homes with the help of these destination professionals.
It has a portfolio of 80 large plots to develop, although there are other owners in the area such as the Castlelake investment fund, which landed in the urbanization in 2014 acquiring plots that are now several luxury villas promoted by the company Aedas Homes, but also a private Swiss investment group as well as private investors and individuals.