This demand has forced many young Gibraltarians — as well as expatriates who work here but find the Rock’s high prices and rents beyond their pockets — to seek accommodation La Linea or in the lowerpriced Spanish coastal developments within ‘commuting’ distance of Gibraltar. A substantial number are buying ‘off-plan’ in anticipation of their needs in a year or two’s time, according to Spanish property developers; and, as on the Rock, there is a significant market in offplan purchases as speculative investments whose profits will fund a foot on the property rungs. “If you look around, rentals in La Linea are half the price they are in Gibraltar — often for much more spacious accommodation — and buying a house or apartment also costs less,” a Gibraltarian who moved across the border with his family a year ago explains. Property agents confirm this. Government promises to reverse this trend — at least in part — by providing a buffer of lower-cost homes as well as adding to its own rental stock have still to take effect. The first units in Waterport Terraces - the complex of nearly 400 homes and 140 rental flats for senior citizens on the Bay front beyond the bus park, (for which applications closed at the end of September) — will not become available until January the year after next. The second and third phases will be completed later in the same year. It is the first Government-backed residential development aimed at those with moderate incomes for some time and there were almost three times as many applications for the “reasonably priced” homes as the 396 units available. Depending on their incomes, purchasers will be able to buy outright or to buy 50 per cent of the property in co-ownership with Government, and there are tough conditions governing resale to prevent “profiteering.” Applicants had to be Gibraltarian, have lived here for a long time or have strong Gibraltar connections. And in a further move to meet the demand for affordable housing, in October the Government announced plans for another 900 homes which are to be built in conjunction with OEM International and should be available in September the year after next and in March 2008 — a long way down the line in anyone’s terms. Situated at Rosia Bay, in Cumberland Road and North Gorge they will be “slightly more expensive” than apartments in the Waterport Terraces project. As well as the Government’s attempt to provide low cost housing at least 200 more “affordable” homes should become available when — and if — the £300-millon Catalan Bay development is completed. Some of these are expected to be in the lower-cost bracket — part of the Government’s stipulation in relation to the deal. Work also eventually began a year ago on projects valued at almost £70 million which by the early half of 2007, will transform a section of Gibraltar’s Marina Bay into a millionaire’s waterfront “playground” of luxury high-rise apartments, restaurants and designer-label boutiques set in landscaped gardens and water features. Between them Taylor Woodrow’s three-tower “Tradewinds” complex and developer Greg Butcher’s adjacent “Ocean Village” will provide almost 200 upper-price-bracket flats and penthouses along a stretch of waterfront, part of which is also to be reshaped to accommodate some of the world’s biggest super-yachts. With other Taylor Woodrow developments which are in the pipeline or nearing completion the Tradewinds project will boost the builder’s current commitment to building work valued at more than £50 million. And though this sum pales by comparison with the £300 million Catalan Bay development, it is currently the biggest private sector commitment and anticipates that the Rock’s burgeoning demand for housing will continue. Over the past five years this has pushed up the price of residential properties by an average of 150 per cent. In a process that has already started, over the next few years a large stock of land — including residential units and sites for development — will be being handed back to Gibraltar by the MoD. Stressing that “supply will increase significantly in the foreseeable future,” a leading local estate agent told Gibraltar Magazine that “the million dollar question is whether increases in demand will outstrip the relatively major increases in supply promised by the developers and the Government.” Ask most developers and estate agents the question and the consensus is that demand will continue and though upper bracket prices level off, Gibraltar property generally will remain a sound market for buyers or investment. by Peter Schirmer

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