Lessons we can learn from Travel and Tourism in a Post-Brexit World
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Since the financial crisis of 2007, the Spanish real estate sector has been showing signs of a sustainable recovery.
According to experts such as Tinsa, the property valuation and consultancy company, half of the main 135 coastline towns in Spain have seen the average prices increase this year. In addition to this, new figures from the Spanish Land Registrars’ Association show demand from foreign buyers for Spanish homes jumped 9.4 per cent in the three months to September 2016.
Around 13,700 foreign-buyer deeds were logged in the third quarter; an increase of almost 10 per cent year-on-year, demonstrating the strength of the country’s appeal.
The vote for Brexit has caused some uncertainty and the implications are still not completely clear. According to the Spanish Land Registrars’ Association, the pound’s drop after the Brexit vote may also have affected the demand from Brits for Spanish homes, with a dip in sales of 16 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
However, the demand for quality homes in fabulous locations is still high and Brits are still the largest buyers of Spanish property, with the UK making up 18% of sales, second are the French with 9%.
Despite the uncertainty Brexit may have caused, Spain remains an exciting investment opportunity with forecasters pointing to a window of opportunity for buyers while prices remain stable before starting to increase steadily over the medium term.
So how can developers remain relevant in this exciting post-Brexit environment?
At TM Real Estate we have been looking at what we can learn from our colleagues in the travel and tourism industry and have defined three key areas where developers can win by becoming more outward facing and learning from the best in the sector.
The first is to realise that we’re not operating in one sector only. Where we play is partly property development and partly tourism and hospitality and we need to evolve to succeed in this dynamic hybrid environment. For our customers, buying a holiday home is as much about the destination as the property.
It’s not enough to build and market beautiful homes, we need to ensure that we are involved in the promotion of the culture, natural environment, gastronomy and world class facilities of our locations. Our destination marketing needs to touch the hearts of our customers – here, there is so much we can learn from our colleagues in the travel industry.
The second thing we need to do is listen. By undertaking better market research, more often and with more customers, we can have a deeper understanding of what consumers are looking for. Customers’ expectations are rising in all areas of their lives and we need to keep pace with this. They are increasingly discerning and the better we understand them the better we can be at designing and building homes that will delight them.
The third area we can address is the process of buying a home abroad. In the same way that the most successful travel companies have simplified the process of booking holidays and travel, we need to understand from our customer’s perspective how daunting buying a property can be.
For most people, it’s a huge life decision and if much of it happens in a foreign language, it can add more layers of stress and complexity. It’s our job to understand how this makes our customers feel and it’s down to us to understand how we can help guide and support them. We need to be there for our customers with the right resources – in their native language – from their initial decision to the moment they get their keys and move in. We need to tailor our services and ensure that we provide customers with access to professional legal and financial advice and services at all stages of the buying process.
Companies that can do this will successfully differentiate themselves.
ABOUT TM REAL ESTATE
TM Real Estate has been developing holiday homes for Brits on the Mediterranean coast for the last 45 years. Here, Stefan Noben the company’s UK Market Manager talks about how the sector has much to learn from the travel industry if it wants to thrive in a post-Brexit world:
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