< Back to portfolio

Holiday let in Marbella Spain

Marbella, Spain

A brand new apartment on a golf course, with beautiful views of the ocean. It was nine years old but due to the Spanish company going bust, it had never been sold or lived in and was being offered at a discounted price.

This was an interesting one because I bought in May of 2015 and the main reason I bought it was because I wanted to have exposure to the Euro especially with all the uncertainty surrounding the UK ties to Europe. At the time this property was completed (2008/2009) there was a lot of financial difficulty in Spain (even worse than in the UK) and a lot of developments had gone bust. When it did this property was  for sale for over 600,000 Euro!. It was later bought out by a fund and then put back on the market in 2014. They were quite keen to start getting the sales going and therefore they were offering a discount to people so they could move quickly.

We let this out for the golfing season throughout the year and we use it ourselves for about three or four holidays each year. It rents for 110 per night in peak season and 75 off-peak. We let it for 20-weeks last year and hope to increase that his year.
I’ve got an English-speaking Agent out there who deals with all the Spanish property in the area. She cleans between tenants and does a maintenance check every two-weeks.
  • Asking price: €320,000
  • Purchase price: €285,000
  • Exchange rate at time of purchase: 1.42
  • Price in £: £200,000
  • Legal fees and furnishing: £30,000
  • Refurb cost: N/A
  • Monthly costs: £350
  • Monthly profit: £600 on average over the year
  • Free holidays: Priceless

As the developer sells more properties the prices are being pushed up. The property is now worth £304,000. A lot of the increase if the move in the currency because the euro is now 1.15 to the pound. Do you see how you can make money without the property value even moving up massively?

I ended up locking in this 1.15 exchange rate by purchasing a financial product called ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) which meant I could lock in the currency rate without having to remortgage or sell the property.

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins