Beaches, metropolitan atmosphere, ski slopes, golf courses, gastronomy and world-class culture.
I think Barcelona is one of the few cities that can give you all this, and that is exactly why the city has started to get attention from Swedes who are looking for a permanent holiday home just outside the traditional areas in Spain.
Barcelona IS truly the city that has it all! It is not in many million cities where in 20 minutes you can walk from a vibrant city center with shopping and commerce and then enjoy the waves of the Mediterranean rolling in on a wide sandy beach. It is also not in many places you can find different cultural offerings every day in the form of music - concerts, pub music, street music - art exhibitions and sporting events of all kinds and a new type of high-class restaurant for every night. The diversity in Barcelona IS striking.
And to top it off a bit more. 2 hours’ drive from the city there are good ski slopes 4 months a year, at a closer distance about 50 golf courses and the countryside of Catalonia literally bursting with vibrant villages with culture, natural beauty and gastronomy.
More and more Swedes want to enjoy what Barcelona can provide. Therefore, an apartment in the city center has come up as an alternative to the townhouse on the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol coasts.
I think now is the time to buy in Barcelona. Prices have stabilized and will probably go up thanks to the city becoming so attractive among us Europeans. I also believe that an investment in Barcelona - regardless of area and neighborhood - is always a good investment. Barcelona is the brokerage market that has been least affected by the financial crisis, there has always been interest in buying here, even among the Spaniards themselves.
But buying an apartment in Barcelona can be another five than buying in an area dominated by Scandinavian brokers and sellers. Here you are out on the local market with few Scandinavian operators and you compete directly with Barcelona-bon who are looking for a new home in their hometown.
With all aspects in mind, it is recommended that you find professional and local help to find an apartment and to get through the buying process. It can be more complicated than you think and above all there are many details that you have to think about. Most of a purchase is the buyer's headache, such as e.g. inspect the apartment, check all the details with the home and the whole house, find a notary and make sure that everything is registered correctly, etc. You should also be sure of where in Barcelona you want to buy. There are solid differences between neighborhoods and areas, both in terms of atmosphere, commercial offerings, type of house and mix of permanent residents. Some parts are very marked by tourism, other parts have a motley element of immigrants from all over the world.
Many neighborhoods can be beautiful but have such high prices that you do not reach that level with your budget. Other neighborhoods may suffer from a "bad reputation" and therefore have low prices, but are facing a major project from the authorities to improve the service in the area. A local expert can inform you about what the areas are like and what is there, but I would also recommend the buyer to visit the city a couple of times, visit all the areas and feel for what would suit one best.
The different areas have large price differences. In the heart of the Barcelona - Eixample district, the price range is EUR 4,500 / m2. The houses are elegant (often modernist decorated) and often have a concierge. In Poble Sec and Sant Antoni you can get an apartment for 3,000 EUR / m2 or less. There, the houses are smaller, simpler, some with renovation needs. One can t.om. find apartments for 2,000-2,500 EUR / m2 in the Poble Nou just outside the city center. The further up in the house the more expensive the apartment will be and if there is a private terrace, the price will surely increase from 500-1,000 EUR / m2 just for the terrace.
A purchase is made very quickly in Barcelona, simply because there are few good items and many stakeholders. It does not have to mean that prices are soaring, thanks to the country's general crisis, prices have come down to reasonable levels (reduction 30-40%), but the interest in apartments in Barcelona is great and people come to the city from all corners of the world to find a holiday home. Therefore, you should make a quick decision once you have seen an apartment you want, it can be days to strike.
Upward bidding does not exist in Spain. The official selling price is what the seller wants to get, but there is always a bargaining margin, even if the broker says no. In some cases, when the apartment is really good, it is sold for the price stated in the ad, but usually you agree on a price around 10,000-20,000 EUR lower.
Either way, again, a local expert can make the negotiation much easier by thoroughly finding out the seller's situation and the reason for the sale, etc., in order to have a clearly better position in a bargaining process.
Some quick tips:
Get help from a knowledgeable person on site. You save yourself a lot of headaches, travel, money and above all you remove the risk of being cheated or ending up in complicated language confusion.
Get to know the city before you decide where you want to look. Barcelona is a large and diverse city, the areas different.
You are not only buying the apartment, you are also buying part of the property itself, which means that you have to pay your share of its future repairs, so it is important to find out everything about the whole property, not just the apartment.
When you see the price of an apartment, always add 12% to the price (tax 10% and purchase process costs).
Think about who will be the owner. Every time you want to transfer an apartment in the name of a son, wife or grandchild, you have to pay 10% tax again.