Valuing 2021
31/12/2021 As usual, I try to “get wet”, give my opinion, always based on my own experience and not on what the others tell me, and that’s how I want to end this 2021, explaining how it has gone for us and what we have found, far from biased statistics or fuss of those who sell everything.
We finished the year with a notable, we did not arrive to excellence. We have managed to close interesting operations, more in volume of business and quality of the product than in quantity. Finally, we are satisfied.
The product in our portfolio has continued to come to us by recommendation, for which I continue giving thanks every day, and I hope it continues to do so. All this comes from relationships with professionals from different sectors, especially those related to law, which I always try to maintain with the utmost professionalism and affection.
And if we are ready when they recommend the sale of a house in the appreciated Rambla de Catalunya, we must also be willing to help them when we are required to sell a house in Sant Feliu Sasserra, even if it takes us a little far from the office.
The market in general in 2021, at least in Barcelona, has been characterized by a lack of product, at least in relation to second-hand. We have continued to receive offers more or less lower than the advertised price, although it is true that, after good advice to the seller, we usually have the product at or very close to a closing price.
This indicates that the buyer tries the discounts, but at the end of the day, if we are at the right point, they are also capable of accepting that, sometimes, the real estate is at its price, and buy.
The rental world would require an entire book, with the year we have lived. Flats that went from short terms rental to conventional rental, and turn back again. Prices up and down, expectations of owners impossible to meet and having to say many times “that would not be legal”.
For 2022, still disagreeing with the media gurus, I think we will have a correct year, but not exceptional. The precariousness of employment, with a falling unemployment rate but in exchange for very poor salaries, does not indicate that it will help much to those massive sales that some predict. Above all, taking into account the rise in the CPI, one of the reasons that will partially slow down the economic recovery.
The market cannot be based on purchases by Government´s or multinational´s employees. It also remains to be seen how the return of foreigners and the purchases they make will develop. Everything will be linked to the development of effective vaccines for COVID and the policies imposed by Spain to contain the virus.
Another latent problem is the legal insecurity with which the capital finds itself, capable of promoting constructions for sale or for build-for-rent, since it has become clear that the regulations imposed by City Councils have reduced the interest of professionals in the acquisition of lots by having to mortgage 30% for VPO. The responsibility of public entities is one more time placed on the back of the private sector, and thus things do not work.
But having said all of the above, the ability of people to excel, in personal and business spheres, will drive 2022 to be a good year, with caution, but with the desire that characterizes us, we will once again be exceptional people who can undertake challenges. , problems, sorrows and seek solutions, bring joy, intelligence and kindness to what is put before us.