Rhona Hutchinson is an expert on all aspects of buying property in Spain and is frequently quoted in the national press. Here is a selection of recent press coverage.
The Sunday Times
The gain in Spain – A pioneering British buyer paid £500 for a Spanish shack in 1968. Now she’s selling it as a sleek three-bed home minutes from Marbella.
“In Estepona, which was a small fishing village in the 1970s, there were just three or four cars, owned by the police and the doctor,” recalls Rhona Hutchinson, director of Keystone Property Finders Spain (previously Integrated Relocation Spain), who in 1977 began working for a company that ran some of the first inspection trips to the Costa del Sol. “And the local cinema in Puerto Banus was a hut where the audience huddled around on directors’ chairs with drinks from the nearby bar. Now the cinema is luxury apartments.
“We were selling one-bedroom apartments near Puerto Banus for as little as £8,000, and you could buy a two-bedroom villa for under £20,000,” she says. Nowadays, a good-quality two-bedroom flat would cost £220,000, although that’s still down on the £330,000 reached at the peak in 2007.
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The Financial Times
On the fast track
Not all locations have been so successful. The Spanish city of Valencia, which won the right to stage a race five years ago, is struggling to lift a local housing market in near-freefall. Rhona Hutchinson of Keystone Property Finders Spain (previously Integrated Relocation Spain), a buying service operating for foreign clients moving to the country, says: “Some investors have picked up prime-site apartments which produce good rental income over the days of the event but occupancy is less predictable during the rest of the year. F1 certainly lends the city recognition and glamour but in this recession, the benefits are masked.”
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Daily Mail
Valencia’s winning formula: The Grand Prix city has all the buzz of Barcelona, but far lower prices.
For many holiday home buyers, Spain means sun, sea and sand — but it can also mean ‘city’. And many Britons dream of a place in the fashionable hubs of Barcelona or Madrid. But for those who cannot afford the price tags of these glamorous options, Valencia, on Spain’s Mediterranean coastline midway between Barcelona and Malaga, can be an affordable alternative.
The Guardian
Spanish Property: Playing it cool in the coastal hotspots
“Refine the search to established developments that are mature and run well. Buying from individuals may be a better option than from developers. Prices may be 30% to 40% lower than last year, and further negotiation is possible,” says Rhona Hutchinson of Integrated Relocation Spain.
Telegraph
Property in Spain, but not as we know it (Menorca)
“The island’s homes remain expensive – as on all the Balearic Islands – but better value than before. “Prices are 30 to 40 per cent down on Menorca as they are throughout Spain,” says Rhona Hutchinson of Keystone Property Finders Spain (formerly Integrated Relocation Spain), a buying agency. “They are also much lower than on nearby Majorca.
“Majorca is a little brassier than Menorca, where Britons are lower-key and concentrate on their homes and boats,” says Hutchinson. “There are also stricter planning laws that prevent the oversupply of high-rise flats that scar many mainland costas and parts of Majorca.”
Telegraph
Ask the Experts – buying in Andalucia
The Market
I know people use search agents to help them find the perfect house and I wondered if there were any firms, or individuals, offering the same service for foreign property. We want to buy somewhere in Andalucia but can’t afford the time to fly back and forth to find what we’re after. We want a traditional house with character, if possible a restoration project.
Lorna Vestey writes:
Buying abroad obviously has potential pitfalls and there are plenty of reasons to make retaining a good search agent a sensible plan. The language and local law will contain unknowns and, when judging by appearance only, it is difficult to distinguish the good and honest advisers (or sellers) from the incompetent and devious. Added to that is a lack of local knowledge and the practical difficulties of searching for a property in a country where you are not based.
For reliability, choose a member of EuRA, the international professional association of relocation agents. While most members in Spain specialise in the corporate sector, Integrated Relocation Spain also offers property search to private individuals (0844 598 3222; integratedrelocationspain.com) and I suggest you contact them.