Gecko Towers
Last week, I attended an online webinar about client generation funnels, truly fascinating and quite inspirational. It certainly got me thinking.
A comment was made by the UK-based presenter, that the participants may be increasingly able to choose from where they’d run their businesses. He felt that not everyone would want to run their business from the beach in Marbella! WTF, I thought, being curiously offended for my adopted home, why on earth would they not want to!!!
This started me thinking. There are two schools of thought.
Firstly, are we too familiar with the Costa del Sol? Is it perceived of as being a cliched? Is it somewhere you have been on multiple Mum & Dad bucket and spade holidays, starting as a kid in the nineties? Has it become the butt of too much media sneering?
Is Marbella just not sufficiently cool for a new generation who have a lot of flexibility as to where they can base their lives and, if they work, where they choose to work from?
I touched on these preoccupations in a previous post Are younger property buyers really disinterested by cheap booze and all day breakfasts?
Alternatively, are we restricted by the fear of taking a risk? Of trying on a different pair of trousers for the fear that they may not fit.
Have you ever got to the end of a Marbella holiday and said, “It’s very nice here, shall we stay?” Marbella: It is very nice here, shall we stay? However, as the scent of sea air in your nostrils dissipates you slip back into your familar life only resurfacing when your next trip beckons.
We are regarded as social creatures but would the chance of stepping outside the ordinary to experience the extraordinary be something that you and your family would entertain? Would it result in you being ostracized by your peer group or would you be seen as a pioneer and respected?
As an aside, I recall in moving to the Marbella region, when I was 44, we experienced two distinct reactions. One was a group of “friends” who made it clear that they regarded us as having “left them behind” or “abandoned” them to deal with the daily struggles that they encountered in London. Equally, there was another group who we weren’t particularly close to who, on hearing we’d arrived in Marbella, were keen to see whether they could join us for a long weekend or two in the coming months. Mmmmm!
This obviously doesn’t apply to you if your chosen career ladder and work patterns compel you to be in your office in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London or Stockholm for five days a week and for forty eight weeks a year. I understand that your flexibility and choices may be limited. As a result your choices as to where you may like to holiday become even more acute and you end up selecting a trip to the South Atlantic to see the penguins or the myriad of temples of Vietnam. Seeking extremes of difference from your day to day.
Statistics were recently reported that one in five Swedes planned to retire to Spain. This is, of course, fabulous news for the local economy where the Swedes are particularly keen golfers. Los Naranjos Golf (in Nueva Andalucia) has a very strong Swedish membership and a wonderful club-house restaurant. Many urbanizations close to the club have reported a significant increase in Swedish owners. But what is it that is limiting these relocaters from doing so pre-retirement?
The infrastructure is clearly here, the co-working spaces are growing, the banking systems are now fluid and online, the international and local schools are very good and the company start-up structures are increasing forward looking and smooth. Is there anything really stopping you?
As I suspect I don’t really know the answer but I’d like to, could you kindly help by answering a couple of simple questions?
What one thing would cause you to consider relocating to Marbella to continue to develop you and your family’s life here on the Costa del Sol? (For our UK friends I get the hurdles placed by Brexit but with some planning they may well be solvable depending on your circumstances)
If you have considered moving to the Marbella region, if so, what caused you to decide not to?
If you have considered purchasing a property in the Marbella area, is your plan to relocate on retirement or at some earlier date?
Please e-mail me mark@biznagapartners.com with your replies, which I really look forward to receiving.
Oh and by the way, it also seems that there is a prevailing thought that Marbella is indeed a dream location for many. Recently reiterated by the media titan Forbes Magazine. Marbella Tops Forbes’ 2024 “Best European Destinations.”
Should you be interested in discussing the legal process involved in buying a property in the Marbella region, we would be delighted to assist you. Our multi-disciplinary team of bi-lingual, highly experienced and wholly independent Abogados (Spanish Lawyers) and Asesores Fiscales (Tax Accountants) are ready to help you.
We are not estate agents, but we know some hard-working and reputable ones, if needed.
Please call me, Mark FR Wilkins, during usual business hours on +34 600 343 917 or, if you prefer, or e-mail me at mark@biznagapartners.com
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