Almost one in five cheap flats for sale in Malaga and along the Costa come with squatters

Almost one in five flats for sale, considered affordable for the majority of residents, is occupied by squatters in Malaga province, new data shows.

This is pointed out in an example of an increasingly common advertisement on real estate websites: "Malaga city, Nuevo San Andres-Dos Hermanas area, very important! This announcement is only and exclusively for investors in occupied properties. The property is listed as 'inquiokupa', rental contract in force but with debt, and therefore is not mortgageable. Only for purchase with own funds. Viewings are not possible."

Idealista, one of the most widely used portals, has just started implementing a new label, aimed at improving user information and avoiding frustration when faced with a presumed house bargain. Underneath the price and the square metres, many ads now say: "Illegally occupied."

SUR has counted, one by one, the ads for properties in Malaga province that can be considered affordable for the majority, for less than 200,000 euros. According to this newspaper, 589 ads of this type appear for Malaga city. Of these, 107 have squatters which is 18.2% of the total.

This translates to almost one in five flats of this price in Malaga city sold with illegal residents inside. This situation is not exclusive to certain neighbourhoods (although it is more common in areas such as Palma-Palmilla, San Andrés, Dos Hermanas and Trinidad); but it is widespread throughout the city.

When the scope of the study is extended to the wider province, the figure becomes much smaller where out of 5,678 advertisements, 225 are squatted, which is 4%. Cross-referencing of the two figures shows that half of the flats for sale with illegal residents are in Malaga city, followed by Vélez-Málaga, Mijas, Manilva and Fuengirola.

The study is biased, as it is based on total advertisements, and in many cases several real estate agencies offer the same property for sale. But it gives an idea of the extent of the problem and its impact on the real estate market, as these properties are not affordable for most people looking for a home, as they cannot be mortgaged, but are bought in cash. Their clients are mainly professional investors, who take advantage of average discounts of 30%, in exchange for purchasing homes in cash.

It is also not an option if you need to move in at short notice, as it takes several months to achieve full availability of the property (depending on the landlord's eviction procedure, and with extra costs). To which must be added the renovations, which are frequently carried out.

Idealista pointed out that its latest property label helps users, with new tags that help to refine searches at first glance, such as "building", "rented property" or "freehold" (the ownership of the property in question, but without the right to use or enjoy it).

As for the supply of squatted properties, although they do not yet have developed statistics, in a first approximation they estimate that in Malaga city, 3% of the ads are of this type. The main difference with the study carried out by SUR is that Idealista takes into account the 4,059 properties available in Malaga city, of all prices, while this newspaper has focused on the most affordable flats for the vast majority (up to 200,000 euros).

However, in the province it is also possible to find luxury villas for sale with squatters, 'inquiokupas' (when someone signs a rental lease and pays rent, but stops after several months and remains in the home), and other forms of bare ownership, with prices even exceeding one million euros.