Chesterton Gibraltar’s managing director Mike Nicholls was quoted in an article in The Times national newspaper about Gibraltar on Friday 26th February 2016. This is what was reported by the national daily.

“In the past two to three years we have seen a lot of high net-worth fiscal nomads come to Gib, especially British expats who were living in Spain,” says Mike Nicholls, the managing director of Chestertons in Gibraltar. “They come because their income and wealth is sheltered and they feel safe — we speak English, our currency is sterling and our law is English. However, houses can cost two to three times more than in Spain. Buyers don’t have the bargaining power here that they have in Spain. It is a buyer’s market still in Spain and they might have oodles of choice there, whereas here they might have to choose between just a couple of villas.”

At the other end of the market, many young professionals who come to work in the internet-gaming market cannot afford to buy or rent an apartment in Gibraltar so live in Spain and commute.

The new Eurocity development in the business district will provide 450 apartments, including 250 studios and 100 one-bedroom apartments. Prices will start at £130,000, making these the cheapest properties on the market when they go on sale this year, according to Nicholls. “With the new developments, virtually every apartment sold off plan before construction began. When West One launched we sold 96 apartments off plan in four and a half days.”

According to Tostevin, 375 homes were sold off plan in 2015, double the number sold in 2014. The bulk of sales were in four schemes: Midtown, Quay 29, West One and Ocean Spa Plaza. About 82 per cent of buyers pay with cash, with 79 per cent of the purchasers of prime properties acquiring their main residence, although mainstream apartments do attract cash-rich investors keen to capitalise on the strong rental market with yields of about 6 per cent.