The UCI (Unión de Créditos Inmobiliarios) has published a guide to buying and selling real estate in phase 3 of the deescalation, based on advice from real estate experts in the special edition of “Inmocionate en Casa”. The guide is summarized in the following points:
Search criteria
Online search:
During the period of confinement, great advances have been made in the digitization of the traditional procedures for buying and selling of real estate. 3D plans of the houses, virtual video house vitis, tools to recreate the situation of furnishing and decoration of the future home or virtual live tours between the buyer and real estate agent – all this allows buyers to be able to bring forward the search for the house of their dreams with a simple click and, thus, for the most part, to speed up the acquisition process of a property.
Thanks to these digital tools, buyers interested in buying a real estate far away from their province of residence will be able to advance in the purchase process and their decision to purchase until the moment when it will be possible to travel again to proceed the visit of the property in person. The online universe is still the key for sellers to present their offers. In addition, it saves real estate agents time and effort, because they can filter out more accurate these clients who are really interested in purchasing.
Location:
the location of the property has always been a factor to take into account in the purchase. But after these months with reduced mobility, buyers will demand more than ever to have supermarkets, schools, transport, parks or health centers nearby. All of them factors that can be analyzed in the first steps of the search for a property at the click of a button, observing from the screen the services offered by the different areas of interest, in order to discard those that are not interesting or to refine the search.
Energy efficiency:
it is important to check the year of construction of the house, as half of the Spanish real estate properties are over 40 years old. As well as analyzing the energy rating, which goes from type A (more efficient) to G (less efficient), which translated into the buyer’s pocket means savings and comfort or expense and less comfort. Thermal insulation, the entry or not of natural daylight or the ventilation system are basic variables to measure it. Whether or not the house meets these characteristics will allow the future buyer to assess the need for renovations.
Speed up the process
Bills:
before buying, it is essential to ensure that the property is up to date with the payment of all services of the providers, such as electricity and water or community expenses.
Virtual bureaucracy:
behind the operation of sale and purchase there are administrative and bureaucratic procedures that must be completed before and after signing. Trying to prepare them in advance and during the first phases of deescalation will also help to shorten the process of buying a property, which usually takes around two months. In addition, the digital signature is now incorporated in many of these operations, which will also allow you to be more agile in the procedures and to sign a contract independent from your place of residence.
Check your money:
banking and financial institutions continue to offer the opportunity to make telematic and phone inquiries to apply for a mortgage. In the first instance, to avoid unnecessary risks, you can start the process online and then complete it in person.
It is also possible to get an estimate by proceeding a preliminary calculation through the online mortgage simulators. In any case, it is still advisable to have 20% for the down payment when purchasing a property and keep in mind that interests ranges from 1,50% variable rate and 2,90% on the fixed rate. However, expert advice is the key to making the best decisions.
Currently, financial conditions are optimal in variable, mixed or fixed rate mortgages. However, in case of possible upward tensions in interest rates, long-term fixed or mixed rates are emerging as the best alternative for those who want to secure a fixed quota.
Visits:
are the key points of real estate purchase and sale operations and one of the aspects that have paralyzed the sector the most in the past months. Since phase 1, house visits are allowed, always if they are in the same province as the current residence of the future buyer. Although visits are essential to process these operations, technological tools help all parties to make an important filter to permit visits only when it is strictly necessary and the purchase decision is well advanced. After the end of the deescalation, visits can also be held outside the province of residence.
When visiting, limited groups of persons are recommended; preferably three: the real estate agent and a maximum of two in the role of buyer, preferably without children. In addition it must be followed the protection and hygiene guidelines: use of gloves, masks and hydroalcoholic gel for all parties, it must be maintained a safety distance of 1,5-2 meters and you have to avoid traffic as much as possible in common zones of the property, such as elevators or stairs. Also, after each visit, the real estate managers must ventilate and disinfect the property for the next visit.
Purchase opportunity
New demands:
the ‘stay at home’ of these months has led many Spaniards to analyze factors of their home that they previously took less account of, such as the entrance of natural daylight; the existence of open and exterior spaces, such as terraces, gardens or balconies, and the extension of the property itself, which leads to a large percentage of people wanting to change their homes and to move in the near future and, therefore, the demands will increase.
However, “the search for these new factors will not have a long journey”, unless companies decide in the long term to bet more on telework, and that this is not a conjunctural situation, in which case it could increase interest in living in the periphery or far from large urban centers, because living near the workplace will no longer be a priority. “
Labour market:
And it won´t be surprising that the labor situation of buyers in the medium-long term will be key to take the final purchase step and to study the feasibility of mortgage loans. Although it is true, that some sellers in emergency situations caused by the need for liquidity could also make offers in the real estate market with significant drops
Tendency to moderate and lower prices:
2019 closed with a 4% year-on-year increase in real estate prices. On the contrary, according to data from the First Real Estate Barometer of the UCI and SIRA, half of the professionals in the sector point to a stabilization or moderate decrease in property prices in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Source:
”Guía para la compraventa de viviendas en la fase 3”, an initiative of the UCI in collaboration with SIRA (Spanish International Realty Alliance), special edition “Inmocionate en Casa” https://www.inmocionate.com (June 2020).
