Spanish property market | costa del sol Merck Estates

Merck Estates was founded by Mr Merck. After many years experience in the Spanish Property Market on the Costa Del Sol, Mr Merck felt there was something missing - personalised service and individual attention.

With so many estate agents offering Costa Del Sol property for sale, Clients are seen as one of many, as numbers rather than individuals and their specific property needs are not always listened to. At Merck Estates, a professionally run business, every Client is important and valued and receives individual attention right the way through the purchasing process.

We appreciate that buying a property overseas can be a minefield and for some Clients may be one of the largest financial purchases you will make. We hope that you are enjoying our website so far and that many of your questions about buying property on the Costa Del Sol have already been answered through our information pages. By letting you know a little more about the foundation of Merck Estates a professional Costa Del Sol estate agent and how we conduct business with comments from our Chairman below, you can be assured that as our Client, every step of your property purchase will be managed in a professional and friendly manner.

Managing Director

Mr Merck

Why Merck Estates?

We know that there are many companies selling property on the Costa Del Sol, so why should you choose us, as your estate agent to handle either your investment portfolio or holiday home purchase?

We are accredited and licensed by the National Association of Estate Agents & FIABCI. This means that we adhere to strict codes of professional conduct and ethics and are regularly monitored by continued professional development.
The properties that we have available for sale have been cherry-picked, they are very select. Our valuation process is different from the majority of other real estate companies in our market. If you look at our website, you will see that we do not have thousands of properties for sale. Firstly this will confuse you. Secondly we do not wish to saturate our portfolio with any old property to make us appear bigger than we are. Our Managing Director personally overseas all the properties that we shortlist. We liaise with the College of Architects to check on building licenses, if an area is being granted with too many licenses we know that the supply may outweigh the demand, therefore we avoid such scenario. We closely look at build quality, location, specification and price per square meter. If the criteria are fulfilled then the development or individual property becomes part of the Merck Estates portfolio. Although we specialise in very prestigious properties, whatever your budget, we work within the same parameters - finding the best properties to suit your price range.
80% of our new business comes from referrals.
Merck Estates is an Australian owned company. The team of staff have a wealth of experience including investment portfolio management, residential and commercial property sales and management, RICS qualified valuers, UK conveyancing, account management and all boast the highest levels of Client service. With a high net worth client base, managing property purchases for sports agents and international musicians, our team can cater for every need. You will experience a straight-talking, friendly and professional service.
Merck Estates assists all our Clients with the mortgage application process. We fully assess your finances, fixed assets, liabilities, income be it self-employed or employed. Our supporting partner is Banco Halifax Hispania, with whom we have negotiated very good interest rates for our investor Clients wanting interest only mortgages or alternatively you may wish to set up your mortgages as interest plus principal.
In terms of legalities, we work closely with English independent speaking solicitors, ensuring that the legalities and conveyancing is looked after by professional people throughout the whole buying process.
We are REALISTIC in meeting our Clients' expectations. Other Real Estate companies may pitch to you the promise of 30% capital growth or the guarantee of selling your property prior to completion. This simply underestimates your financial prudence. Property purchasers are much more financially savvy these days when buying property in Spain, the tools are available for anyone to see how different markets work and what yield can be obtained. In current market conditions, we advise our Clients' that a realistic capital growth in this area net per annum is around 8-12% with the opportunity to gain a rental income in addition.
Our aftercare service is unparalled, we provide Merck Estates clients with professional property snagging, furnishing, insurance, cleaning and all Clients that purchase a property through us are eligible for selling through us.
Rather than the 'guarantee' of selling on before completion, we absolutely make sure that our Clients know that, whilst we will market their properties through every marketing tool we have, there are no guarantees. Instead, we prefer to advise our Clients of the completion costs, to ensure that you are in a position to complete, get the right finance in place and once completed, assist you in renting the property out. We work very closely with our chosen rental companies who have tenants waiting for our Clients developments on long-term or short-term rental schemes, again at a realistic price. If a property is marketed too high, it will sit on the market empty - we do not want this for our Clients. Our investor Clients are happy to cover their overheads such as mortgage and community fees, that way the investment is self-funding. When it comes to selling your property, we provide the prospective purchaser with a set of accounts for the property, showing the rental income and do not market it at an over-valued price. Our ethos is to not let our Clients become too greedy but to make a decent profit, enabling you to reinvest.

What our Chairman says...

In a recent interview Mr Merck, Chairman of Merck Estates SL explains that a fresh, honest and professional approach to finding buyers the right property on the Costa del Sol is what Clients are looking for and deserve, he went on to say, "We have every confidence in the area and product that we offer to our Clients. 80% of our new business comes from referrals which is testament to the foundations which I have built for my company. Having worked for one of the largest estate agents on the Costa del Sol for 5 years, the red tape and lack of service enabled me to break boundaries and provide Clients with what they really want and was the inspiration for establishing Merck Estates. My approach is very different to larger agents. The Merck Estates property portfolio offers around 250 of the best, most prestigious holiday homes and investment properties. I liaise with the College of Architects and if a property does not meet my standards for location, specification and price per square meter, I will not include it in my portfolio."

When asked about emerging countries for investment, Mr. Merck commented, "I have researched many areas on behalf of my Clients such as other coastlines of Spain, France, Dubai. None of these areas offer the same level of infrastructure as the Costa del Sol. With beautiful coastline, fabulous marinas, shopping, International schools, an abundance of fine restaurants, golf courses, water sports and of course the frequency and stability of schedule flights to Malaga airport from all UK major airports and Ireland, no other country can offer the same when it comes to investment property or holiday homes. My way of helping Clients is to be totally honest with them. I will not tell a Client that they can expect to earn a fast buck; this is an area they want to be part of simply because they love it here. My loyal investor Clients repeatedly add to their portfolios because I provide realistic capital growth figures and will not sell areas where a mass amount of construction is taking place. The Costa del Sol provides an investor with between 9-12% net yield per annum and a very stable rental income. All in all, investors like it here because the area has a proven track record which is what all the emerging countries are lacking."

Speaking of his recent professional accreditations, Mr. Merck said, "I am thrilled to be part of two well known professional networks. The standards required to be accepted are very high and it reiterates the methodology in which I have always worked for with my Clients. I am well respected by major developers on the Coast which means that I can offer the best product for my Clients. Becoming part of the NAEA and FIABCI means that I adhere to professional codes of conduct as well as looking after my Clients throughout the entire purchasing process from arranging viewings, liaising with English-speaking solicitors, arranging Spanish mortgages, carrying out snag lists and after-care."

For further information and to arrange viewings of our stunning properties on the Costa Del Sol, register your details in 'MY ACCOUNT' in our main menu and will be happy to call you at your convenience.

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