A buyer looking at the Costa del Sol online sees something that does not happen in most other countries. The same home appears on ten or twenty websites. The reference numbers differ, the photographs differ, the floor area differs, and the price differs. This guide explains the system behind that, so that you can read the listings correctly, work out which price and which agent to deal with, and avoid the one mistake that creates a dispute later.
How listings work on this coast
In the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands or Scandinavia a seller usually instructs one agent, and that agent is the only one advertising the home. On the Costa del Sol the norm is the opposite. A seller instructs one agency, or two or three, without an exclusive agreement, and the agencies then share the listing with every other agency on the coast through a common database. The largest of these has been used by agencies here for more than twenty years, and most agencies subscribe to it.
Each agency with access can take the listing, give it a reference number of its own, rewrite the description, and publish it on its own website and on the portals. The agency that holds the instruction from the owner is the listing agent. Everyone else is sharing. When a sale happens through a sharing agency, the two agencies divide the commission between themselves, and the seller deals with the listing agent throughout.
The result is that a well-priced apartment in Marbella can be found on forty websites within a week of coming to market, and that what you are looking at online is forty copies of one listing, not forty homes. It also means that the exclusive listings, the ones held by one agency alone, are the minority, and they are usually the newer and better-presented ones.
Why the prices differ
There are four usual reasons, and they are worth knowing because each tells you something.
The price was reduced and the copies were not updated. The listing agent reduces the price on the owner’s instruction. The shared database updates. But many sharing agencies run their own websites from exports taken weeks or months earlier, and the old price stays live. When one site shows a lower price than the others, the lower one is usually the current one.
The owner set a net figure. Some owners tell the agencies the sum they want to receive and leave each agency to add its own commission on top. Two agencies with different rates then advertise two different prices for the same home. The owner’s figure is the same in both cases, and it is the figure that matters when you negotiate.
The home has sold. Listings on this coast are not always withdrawn when a sale completes. A home that shows on three sites at a price well below the others may simply have sold at that price months ago. The listing agent can tell you in a minute.
VAT on a new build. A new home from a developer carries 10% VAT, and some agencies quote the price with it and some without. A difference of exactly 10% between two listings of a new build is almost always this. The development pages on this site show the price both ways where the developer’s list does.
Why the floor areas and photographs differ
The floor area differs because Spain has more than one way of measuring a home. The built area (superficie construida) includes the walls and, in a block, a share of the common parts. The usable area (superficie útil) is the floor inside the walls. Terraces are sometimes included and sometimes not. One agency copies the built area from the Land Registry, another the usable area from the owner’s plans, and a third adds the terrace, and the same apartment is listed at 95, 110 and 125 square metres. The registered figure is the one on the nota simple, below. The difference matters when you compare the price for a square metre with the town average, and what your money buys, town by town explains how to compare like with like.
The photographs differ because each agency that visits the home takes its own, and the sharing agencies use whatever the listing agent uploaded. Old photographs are common. A listing with furniture that has since gone, or a kitchen that has since been replaced, is a sign that the copy you are looking at is old, not that the home has changed.
Which price is real, and how to find it
The real price is the one held by the listing agent, today. The first question to ask any agency about any home is whether it holds the instruction from the owner or is sharing the listing. Agencies answer this honestly, because the answer is on record in the shared database. If the agency is sharing, ask who the listing agent is.
The second check is the listing’s history. The portals keep a record of price changes on each listing, and the oldest listing of a home, which is usually the listing agent’s, shows when it came to market and every reduction since. A home that has been for sale for a year with two reductions is in a different negotiating position from one listed last month, and the record tells you which.
The third check is the nota simple. This is an extract from the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad) that any member of the public can order online from the registry’s own site for about nine euros, with the address or the registry reference. It names the registered owner, gives the registered area, and lists every mortgage, charge or embargo on the home. It does not give the price. What it gives you is proof that the person selling is the person who can sell, the floor area the law recognises, and whether there is debt on the home that must be cleared at completion. Your lawyer orders an up-to-date one before you sign anything, and there is no reason not to order one yourself at the viewing stage if a home interests you.
Viewing without creating a dispute
The one mistake to avoid is viewing the same home with two agencies. The agency that first shows you a home records the introduction, and if you then buy it through a second agency, the two dispute the commission, the seller is drawn in, and the sale can stall at the worst moment. The rule is simple. Choose one agency for each home, view it with that agency, and if you later want to make an offer, make it through the same agency.
It is also worth being clear about whom the agency works for. On the Costa del Sol the agency that lists or shares a home is instructed by the seller, and its job is to achieve the sale. It will answer your questions honestly, but it is not on your side of the table when the price is negotiated. That is the gap a buyer’s agent fills, and what a buyer’s agent does in Spain sets it out.
What this means for the way you search
Three things follow from the system above. First, do not count listings. Forty results for a search in Estepona may be twelve homes. Second, do not take the first price you see as the price. Find the listing agent and the history. Third, do not take the floor area as the floor area until you have seen the registered figure. Those three habits will save you more money on this coast than any amount of browsing.
How I handle it
On every search I work across the agencies rather than through one, which is what the shared system allows. I find the listing agent for each home that interests you, establish the current price and the history, and put the homes side by side in a spreadsheet with the registered area, the price for a square metre and the community charges, so that the comparison is real before you travel. When you choose a home I give you a straight assessment of what it is genuinely worth and negotiate the price on your behalf with the listing agent, and I introduce you to an independent lawyer who orders the nota simple and runs the legal checks before you pay a deposit. That is the buying service. If you have found a home online and want to know what it is really listed at, book a call.
Common questions
Why is the same property listed by so many agents on the Costa del Sol?
Why does the same home have different prices on different websites?
Which price is the real one?
What is a nota simple?
Can I view the same home with two different agencies?
What this relates to
