Paul Rossiter, Managing Director of Contemporary Villas comments, "Six years ago I set up a real estate company, Carrington Estates, specializing in the sale of individual villa plots for self-build along the Costa del Sol. At the time it was a unique untapped niche market but we've enjoyed enormous success and have arguably helped self-build to become mainstream, perhaps with some help from Channel 4's Mr McCloud. Contemporary Villas is another such unexplored niche. Perfect specimens of honest pure modern architecture are hard to come by in southern Spain, but society is changing and demand is growing. Undoubtedly Channel 4's almost cult television series, Grand Designs, has fuelled a hunger for all things contemporary and brought out the inner architect in many ordinary folk, meanwhile the age bracket is also dropping and many younger buyers dipping their toes into buying abroad are much more interested in modern designs."
As for the timing of his new Spanish property business start-up, Paul has this response, "Granted the idea for Contemporary Villas took seed long before the Spanish property market slowdown but we've not pulled the plug for a number of reasons. Firstly the decision to construct and market modern property is part of a wider trend which should be taken out of the context of current Spanish market conditions. Regions such as the Portuguese Algarve have many examples of contemporary design alongside specialist villa-only agents and developers and southern Spain in many ways lags behind, despite sharing a similar climate, profusion of elite golf courses, marinas and so on. Likewise the top-end of the Spanish property market is holding fast, the sector served by Contemporary Villas, and even now the Coast is struggling to supply a growing demand for clean architectural lines allowing price tags to rise."
There is even an argument to suggest that the Spanish slowdown has been of assistance to Contemporary Villas. Paul concludes, "As we're constructing several of our own projects, the gradual reduction in land values has enabled us to buy prime building plots below market value and we'll landbank those we don't immediately develop for future investment. Similarly, as the construction industry is underemployed, build costs are becoming more competitive, there's certainly room for negotiation. And, with so many real estate agents going to the wall it can only help our unique business to stand out from the crowd."
Contemporary Villas hasn't just stuck a finger in the air and taken a punt on modern design, the business is based on fact, experience and on real demand. Southern Spain's property market is changing and with all that sunlight flooding the landscape, where better for clean architectural lines.
