The second home real estate sector

Despite the uncertainty facing the real estate investment market in general, given recent international events and the anticipated turning point in housing price trends, we can assure you that the second home sector continues to experience strong demand growth, an upward trend in prices, and capital gains and profits in all affected sectors.

In the growing evolution of the second home real estate sector, in addition to the well-known economic reasons or causes, there are also sociological or sociocultural motivations, which are no less important.

Indeed, the boom experienced since 1998 is due to several distinct economic factors: the decline in interest rates reduces financing costs, especially mortgages, encouraging real estate investment; the widespread and continuous fall in stock market values diverts investment towards the real estate sector, which becomes a "safe haven" asset, offering high security and consolidated capital gains; the growth of our economy, with the increase and consolidation of employment, also contributes, it must be acknowledged, to the relaunch of the construction sector; and finally, the introduction of the single currency in the EU opens markets to the outside world, facilitating foreign investment, especially from countries where land values are still much higher than in Spain.

But if such economic motivations are valid as justification for real estate development in our country, for the second home market other causes of a sociological nature converge with even greater importance.

If to the increase in life expectancy (and quality), we add the unstoppable trend towards early retirement in working life, which is a fact not only in the Public Administration but also in large companies, we find ourselves with an ever-increasing amount of time dedicated to leisure.

This trend leads to more free time for leisure, with a consequent boom in the second-home market, fueled by strong domestic demand. All this development is reflected in the remarkable growth of towns and cities that attract tourists year-round, not just during the summer months. As a result, second-home apartments and houses more accurately reflect the literal meaning of their terminology; they are "second residences" where their owners live for extended periods, well beyond the strictly holiday season.

For this reason, the most suitable locations for second homes continue to be those closest to major cities, to our primary residence, in short. If we add to this the undeniable improvement in our road networks, it's no surprise that a growing percentage of our population owns a second home at the beach or in the mountains, or both, where they tend to stay for increasingly longer periods throughout the year. And, among these tourist destinations, those with the best-equipped infrastructure and services continue to be the most popular, for the reasons mentioned, even if it means sacrificing some of their natural and scenic appeal.

At MICASA Real Estate Agency, specializing in the marketing of second homes (beach and mountain), we are committed to contributing, in some way, to bringing the supply closer to buyers in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, and specifically to clients in Zaragoza, by catering to their aspirations. In doing so, we also avoid a sad reality of the national tourism landscape: the continued "selling" of our most attractive landscapes and locations, especially on our Mediterranean coast, to citizens of wealthy Europe, thus preventing the feeling, already common in many places along our coast, of being foreigners in our own country.