When we first opened our doors to the public in the mid 80’s, the property market primarily encompassed pre-war properties with small residential developments scattered about the town area and the South District was the exclusive domain of the MOD.
With the passing of time property developers soon realised Gibraltar’s huge potential and it was not long before the first large-scale private development was launched.
At the time of their launch in 1985, prices for a 3 bedroom apartment in Watergardens started at £49,900 and 1 bedroom apartments fetched £28,600. The same properties nowadays start from £270,000 and £190,000 respectively.
To put these figures into perspective, if you had £28,600 in the bank in 1985 and received 4% interest per annum throughout the past 26 years, today you would have the sum of £79,292 sitting in your bank account.
If, on the other hand, you bought a Watergardens 1 bedroom apartment in 1985 for £28,600 and sold it in 2011 for £190,000 after having rented it during the previous 26 years you would be sitting on an even grander sum of at least £161,400 – more than double of the person who placed their savings in the bank.
Watergardens is just one example of how investing in the property market makes your money work harder and grow at a rate unmatched by bank savings and the same pattern is repeated time and time again.
Take Queensway Quay as another example – on average in 1993 a 3 bedroom marina-facing apartment would sell for £145,000, yet the very same property is today worth circa £600,000. If you had placed £145,000 into your bank account in 1993 and lucky to receive an average 4% interest per annum on your savings during that time, you would today have £293,743, yet if you had bought the Queensway Quay instead and rented it out you would have amassed a profit of at least £455,000.
With the continuing volatility in the global financial markets making them the domain of only the brave or foolhardy, and insurance policies continuing to underperform, now is the right time to consider your investment options and diversifying your investments in to property could be the best decision you ever make – the figures speak for themselves!
If you would like to discuss your requirements and see how we can help you please call us on 200 47777 – we will be delighted to help.
Justin Bray
