Lucas Fox expands its operations at its Barcelona HQ, as 2016 shapes up to be an ‘opportune time’ for Spanish property investors
Lucas Fox International Properties has made two key appointments at its Barcelona Headquarters.
Rod Jamieson, previously the company’s Madrid Director has been promoted to Director of Sales & Operations for both Barcelona and Madrid, whilst Joanna Papis moves from Sales Manager to head up the newly created New Developments division.
Both roles have been created in anticipation of the surge in demand during 2016 for Spanish homes in Spain’s top two cities, from both overseas and increasingly local clients.
Lucas Fox’s latest in-house market reports (released officially later this month) indicate that 2015 was a turning point in Spain’s property recovery. Sales prices for Barcelona and Madrid increased by 6% and 4.7% respectively over 2014 and transaction numbers went up by 19% and 14.5% over 2014 figures, averaging 2,667 and 3,750 sales per month. Madrid and Barcelona were also recently singled out as top European property investment hotspots by PwP (Urban Land Institute) who claim that the two cities are now perceived as safer bets than London or Paris.
Mr Jamieson, who is 42, has 14 years’ experience in the Real Estate business including 7 years as Head of Sales at a leading international real estate agency in France. His role will include managing a multilingual team of 35 sales and rentals professionals and overall company strategy.
“I am extremely excited to be taking on this new role as Director of Sales & Operations for the Barcelona and Madrid offices,” comments Mr Jamieson. “It is an opportune time as demand for Spanish property from international investors continues to grow in both key markets. With finance becoming more widely available and positive economic indicators, Lucas Fox has excellent potential for growth during the next 12 months and beyond.”
Ms Papis, who is 31 and has been at the company for 6 years, takes over the role of Head of New Developments in Barcelona following unprecedented demand over the last 12 months for turnkey homes in prime locations. Lucas Fox will be taking on at least 10 new projects in Barcelona during 2016, many of which they will have exclusively.
“The return of local buyers to the property market is a key growth area for Lucas Fox in 2016 and beyond,” comments Lucas Fox co-founder Alexander Vaughan. “As the recovery gets well and truly underway we are also seeing the return of high quality ready-to-move-into homes and we have anticipated these changes with the restructuring of our sales division at our Barcelona HQ. We are currently seeing steady sales of developments such as Casa Burés and Balmes 141 in Barcelona and JA48 in Madrid, reflecting a trend in the market as a whole – that buyers want good quality properties in prime locations with excellent investment potential.”
Lucas Fox’s reports also show that 2015 was a record year for Spain’s tourism industry with the number of visitors up by 5% year on year. From January until the end of November a total for 64.6 million people visited Spain, up 3 million on 2014 figures. The economy also experienced record growth last year, expanding by 3.2%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting that Spain’s economy will continue to push forward during 2016, growing by 2.6%.
