Lockdown forces Spain's old-fashioned property market to modernise

Madrid

SPAIN'S lockdown is dragging one of Europe's older-fashioned property markets into the 21st century, with estate agents scrambling to offer virtual visits and notaries lobbying to legalise e-signatures to offset a near-total halt of business.

In the latest episode of Spain's real estate rollercoaster - which saw the sector boom and bust in 2007, sparking a deep recession - 99 per cent of transactions have stopped during the battle against the coronavirus, according to Spain's Notary Commission.

"We are definitely going down the virtual route," said Shirley Rhodes, commercial director at Lucas Fox, a Barcelona-based agency with a 17.5 million-euro (S$26.9 million) turnover in 2019.

"We are teaching our brokers how to angle the camera," she said. "It will be very professional: a GoPro, lighting, one person talking and the other recording."

Spain's real estate sector accounted for 10.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2019 and is a big draw for foreigners, who accounted for nearly one in five buyers in 2018, according to the General Council of Notaries.

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Tom Maidment, a partner at Lucas Fox, hopes the crisis has a "purging" effect.

"It's an old, antiquated industry that needs shaking up anyway," he said of the sector that still often relies on multiple people in a room together for a signing.

Before the coronavirus hit, his company only provided video tours for about 10 per cent of properties, when a client was unable to visit in person. Now they offer virtual viewing for most listed properties.

However, no estate agent is an island: their business relies on mortgage-providers, notaries and lawyers, all of whose operating ability is on hold.

Under quarantine, notaries have only practised in emergency cases, when halting transactions caused patrimonial or financial loss.

One family in the northern region of Cantabria had sold their old home, but not yet signed their new one's purchase when the country shut down.

Stuck in administrative limbo, the whole family was staying with relatives - until local notary Jose Corral intervened on April 21, over a month into lockdown. He deemed the family's situation pressing enough to certify their acquisition.

"You cannot leave a family on the street because they have not been able to sign the deed," Mr Corral said, adding most people opted to delay signing.

The few transactions he has certified were all conducted with gloves and social distancing measures - but Mr Corral, who is also a spokesman for Spain's Notary Commission, said his profession was rushing to establish new processes.

"We are developing a system allowing people to sign electronically, and waiting for the justice ministry's authorisation," he said. "We could use this electronic method even after the crisis."A spokeswoman said the ministry will evaluate the notaries' proposal "thoroughly". REUTERS