Over 50 years of selling prestige real estate on the Costa del Sol

When it comes to the listing and sale of prestige properties in the Marbella area, nobody knows the business better than Panorama, a family enterprise that goes back 120 years. Panorama is the longest established real estate agency in Marbella, a reputable company founded in Chicago by one of the first golf course developers in the USA.

Christopher Clover, Panorama’s owner and managing director, comes from a three generation-old family of real estate agents and entrepreneurs. The company was founded by Chris’ grandfather in 1904, a developer of single-family homes in Chicago.

In 1904, Burtt Byron (BB) Clover founded B.B. Clover and Company, a real estate and property development company based in Chicago. He later opened another branch in the suburban town of Itasca, where he built a golf course and a clubhouse, the Itasca Country Club. Capitalising on a population explosion which Itasca enjoyed during the 1920s and ‘30s, BB transformed the town into a highly desirable location.

When BB Clover retired in 1952, his son Williston (Bill) Clover continued the family tradition as a real estate broker and property developer for over 40 years in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bill, who died in 2010, had aspired for his business to reach beyond the borders of America: in order to do this, he acquired a Washington DC-based company, Panorama International Ltd in 1968. The company focused on selling second and retirement homes in Mexico, the Caribbean, France, Morocco and, most notably, Spain.

His son, Christopher Clover, was born in Charlottesville in 1947. Graduating from the University of Virginia in 1969, he went to work with his father at Panorama International in Washington DC, where he stayed for two years, before arriving in Spain in 1973 to run the company’s international office In Marbella.

Opened in 1970 (followed shortly after by offices in Mexico City and Mallorca), the Marbella office quickly gained a reputation for providing a quality service in the highly desirable Costa del Sol town. Marbella had established itself as a quality resort and was attracting the world’s rich and famous, and Panorama focused its attention on selling quality developments primarily to Americans.

Armed with a strong linguistic background and with extensive experience in marketing and sales, Christopher Clover arrived in Marbella on his 26th birthday, and, with the support of his father, he expanded the Spanish office and began selling homes to clients from all over the world.

In 1995, the pioneering company capitalised on its success and opened offices in the Puente Romano Hotel. One year later, it launched one of the first websites specific to the Marbella area, which offers information in five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch.

Today, Panorama has two offices on Marbella’s prestigious Golden Mile run by 30 professionals who offer their services in thirteen different languages: these include Christopher Clover’s children, Alex and Katinka.

Providing a high level of personal service, Panorama has earned an outstanding and long-lasting reputation.

Chris accepted a nomination as Eminent Fellow by the prestigious Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in 2015; and one year later, Panorama was approved as a real estate agency regulated by RICS. The company also achieved the Best Real Estate Agency Single Office in Spain at the European Property Awards in 2021.

Since his arrival in Marbella, Christopher has become a leader and pioneer in the real estate community of the Costa del Sol.

He was accompanied by his children Katinka and Alex as he was presented the Malagueño del Año recognition at the SUR in English awards ceremony in Marbella. Christopher reflected on the company’s five decades and talked about the complexities of making international telephone calls when they first started.

“When we first arrived in Marbella, our main link to the outside world was our telex machine. Our main advertising before the internet was press advertising and meeting buyers and sellers at social events. Networking was as valid in its way then as it is today. What a different world we live in today: technology in general has evolved into a completely different scenario,” he said.