Marbella vs. Dubai: Why Luxury Developers Are Betting Big on Costa del Sol

Is Marbella a good investment in 2025? That's the question international buyers and lifestyle seekers are asking right now. I'm GG Benitez, a certified international property specialist, a licensed realtor in California, and RERA certified real estate agent in Dubai. And you're watching GG Benitez International. Through The Dubai Connect podcast, my team of international experts have been guiding Americans and global investors into Dubai. And now, as we expand into Spain with the Spain Connect podcast, I'm bringing you insider conversations on the coastal del Sol, one of Europe's most desirable property markets. That's why I've invited Dar Global to join me today. They have a major presence already in Dubai, are now here in Marbella, and are expanding into the US with a New York office. Just like my company, they bridge these three hubs, Dubai, Spain, and the United States. Together, we'll explore who's buying in Marbella in 2025, what the current price trends reveal, and ultimately, is Marbella a smart investment this year. And stay tuned until the end because we'll also reveal a specific type of investment that Knight Frank research shows delivers up to an 86% premium in Dubai with nearly 70% of global high net worth investors wanting to own one. You'll want to hear how that translates to Marbella and why it's the most powerful trend in luxury property today. So with that, allow me to introduce Caesar, senior sales director of Dar Global here in Marbella on the coast of del Sol in Spain. Hello Caesar. Hi GG. I'm so excited. You are my first podcast here in Marbella. What an honor. What an honor. Really excited for this conversation and thank you, thank you for the invitation for being here today. I watched some of your videos. Congratulations for your content and let's replicate it today. But talking about Dar Global and what we are doing here. Well, I thought this was a perfect introduction to my expansion into Spain because I am very passionate about Dubai, right? I'm a first generation Arab American, as I mentioned in the introduction. I'm licensed in California, my hometown, San Diego. I spent a significant amount of time in Dubai, which is like my baby. And now I'm opening offices here in Marbella. Welcome. Welcome to Marbella. And Dar Global is doing the same. So we are in the same position. Yes. I know you are a little bit familiar with us with our global. We are a new actor here. We are a global developer. In fact, this is our Marbella, it's our office number nine in the world. We are expanding. We are growing across international markets. This is why we are here and I'm the one leading the sales activity of the company here in Marbella, Spain and in Europe in some way because we are not just selling in Spain. We are selling to global investors. We will talk about it later. Yes. In Europe in general in the international markets. Well, and you know that leads me to ask you this question: Dar Global already has a very strong presence in Dubai. What made you decide to come to Marbella? This is a good one, good one to start. I will say that first of all Marbella, based on the geographical position that we have, is like the natural bridge between Middle East and Europe. Also, in some way Marbella is like the natural extension of our portfolio. Today we are doing branded residences in international markets and looking to attract the global investors. So Marbella today, if we talk about Spain and Europe in general, is like the perfect place to keep developing our DNA, which is this one, and this is why we are doing this type of projects that we will talk about them later. Fantastic. And you've been to Dubai yourself, right? Yeah. Will you share with me a little bit of what the different profile is? Because I, for example, will have people in America say, "Okay, I have this much money. GG, am I placing it in Dubai? Am I placing it in Marbella?" And my question is, is Marbella a good investment in 2025? And I'm going to say obviously you wouldn't be here if it's not. But how do you answer that? This is a question that we have every week, okay, from brokers, from from clients. So if you have to compare Marbella and Dubai, they have a lot of things in common but they are still different markets. Dubai today is the global hub where everyone wants to be, fast, quick, where you get best ROIs, best yields, and Marbella instead of investment driven is more lifestyle driven, and that's the key differentiator, right? It's a market still more for end users. It's changing a lot, okay, it's changing a lot. I will explain you, I will explain you how, but both in common, what they have, they are attracting the global, the global buyer and the new buyer that, based on the new trends we are having, so yeah, I will say that in some way they are different and but a lot of things in common. Yes. And to, you know, even further on that point because I've been doing a lot of research myself. I know right now in the United States, Americans particularly are looking at moving to Spain, Spain in very high numbers moving to Spain. So to your point about end users, right? You're seeing so many immigrants come and move to Spain for the lifestyle, the weather, the connectivity to the rest of Europe. And here in Andalusia, the energy, the positive energy, right? One of the differences, even though Spain has just been ranked as the number one fastest growing economy in Europe, economic opportunity still, for example, if you compare it to Dubai, probably with Dubai you're going to have stronger people that are going to find jobs. I feel like maybe the profile in Spain are people that are making their money outside of Spain or already have money and are moving here. Would you agree with that statement? I will agree. I will agree. At the end of the day it's all about the ones that are moving here. I think the main motivation that they are finding is the lifestyle that we offer. If we speak about nationalities and if we have this conversation, we will have this conversation five years ago, the answer will be totally different. Tell me about that. Marbella historically has been a market for the European clients. And when we speak about Europeans, of course, we had the British market, center Europe, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, plus the North Europe, Scandinavians. Okay. However, there are two things that made things happen a lot. One was the COVID time: mentality of clients had changed a lot and they are looking for different things, especially the ultra high net worth individuals. They are demanding different things that I will explain you now. Okay. Plus in Europe unfortunately we have an area with a geopolitical situation that is not very stable, very safe, and the wealthy people from countries as Poland, Czech Republic, around the area where they are having this instability situation, they are moving here looking for what, looking for the best lifestyle, best quality of life, plus safe place. So we offer absolutely everything. Plus we are bringing new people from United States. It's a new market for us. It's an emerging market with a great potential. Even we have the Latin Americans, Mexico, the Mexicans that are investing in Madrid now. They are starting to discover Marbella. We have some curious cases in our projects from people that didn't know about Marbella. They came to Spain, they visited us and they have invested in the Lamborghini, for instance. So this is the proof of concept of how Marbella is maturing into a global hub and attracting the global, global buyers. Okay, that's amazing to know and it's interesting to say you had said this to me when I first met you and I thought it was so interesting. And just to repeat it for my own understanding and grasp of it is that post-COVID ultra high net worth individuals started to really look about the lifestyle. Yeah. And that's where the behavior changed, and that's where you see those people craving. And that's why you see the need for ultra luxury villas and branded residences that we'll get into a little bit later here in Marbella. And of course, I mean, the golf courses, the beaches, the 365 days a year, stunning sun and weather, which affects people's moods, and the ability to be 2 hours away from just about any European city here, right? So, and I agree with you, by the way, when we came and we were deciding, my husband, who's Mexican American, and I, between Madrid, Valencia, which was also in the running, yes, and Alicante and here in Marbella. Marbella reminds me a lot of Southern California coast. So the topography, you know, the beaches, the I mean even driving, the drive is just breathtaking all along the coast and you have the cliffs and the hills, and in an hour and a half you're in Granada in the mountains, skiing if you want, just like in California, right? Or so. You are mentioning a lot of points that in the equation today are like very important and reflects how Marbella is changing. You have mentioned how COVID time has changed mentality, especially in our case when we talk about the ultra high net worth individuals. So coming back to this point, it's very interesting how Marbella has changed from being a market of holiday homes, second home market, to become a market instead of a second home market, a first market. Why? Because people, the ones that used to spend here just one month, they are moving here to spend most of the year. For instance, lives here. We have the European people, the ones that families that they are coming. Why? Not just for the climate. We have. We should speak about the climate. We have the best climate of Europe. Absolutely. 320 days of sun per year. An average temperature of 21 degrees. Who can compete with that? Right. So we have technically speaking San Diego of Europe. We have that. You have mentioned golf courses. We have the best golf courses of Spain. In fact, one of our projects is in Finca del Secreto, which is a top three golf course in Spain. We have connectivity with all the main cities of Europe. You can be in maximum three hours. So having all of that, people they are moving here. They have international schools, best international schools of Spain. So instead of holiday homes, it's their first place now. So it's changing a lot. And of course, if we talk about lifestyle, infrastructure, type of offer of absolutely everything: sport, education, gastronomy. Oh, the food, the restaurants, the chiringuitos. I didn't even know what a chiringuito was until I moved here. I said, what is this chiringuito? And that lifestyle of just being there. I mean, it really does do something for your whole system. And you're probably spoiled because you already live here. But you know, for people that move in high-paced lifestyles to come here, it's a nice treat. Now that you're seeing this transition for first homes, again, it goes back to Marbella being a good investment in 2025 because now, how does that translate for in opportunities for investors with regard to the opportunity for capital appreciation investing in a project? Tell me a little bit about the investment opportunities. Great. So I know you always compare. We would like to compare Dubai with Marbella. I know. So in Marbella, I mean, being putting on the table the realistic numbers, we cannot. We don't have this yields that in Dubai they have. We are a little bit lower. Depends on areas. If we talk about short-term, okay, long-term, but average probably you are aware more than me. Dubai, what is the average yield in Dubai? Seven for yield, yeah. I would say. And it changes, right? It depends. And then if you add a few percent for the short-term rentals as well, and no property taxes and no capital gains. Exactly. This is another conversation that we cannot compete with. You can't touch that with Dubai in Europe. But here I say it's more about capital appreciation. Okay. This market is very solid. It's very mature. It's been performing for how many years? So you have that history to show the trends. It's a long-term bet. Okay. Short term, and short term also. But the main difference with for an international investor when they analyze Marbella, they know that long-term capital appreciation is like they say it. It's where we are leaders based on the track record that we have, based on how we are positioning ourselves in the prime market, and based on the limited offer. We are in one place that we can grow with limited space. Limited space. Fair comparison, by the way, and thank you. I'm so glad we're having this conversation because you're right. Since you are mature, that reduces the risk. It's trusted. You can look at it. So maybe with the yield you can't compete, but the capital appreciation. Are you comfortable sharing some of the trends and some of the numbers for capital appreciation expectations and does it matter between, let's say, a villa or a luxury townhouse or an apartment? I can give you some numbers. Okay. And in fact yesterday, knowing that you I will be asked by you, I was doing my homework. So for instance, over the last six years, if we analyze increase of prices, we have a yearly increase of, in general in the market, I'm not talking about new development resale, 6%. Which is a good number. And the trends and all the things that are happening, strong demand in the prime market shows that we still have time to keep growing, especially based on the demand that we are having for this market in terms of yield average. If we speak about the prime market, we are between five to six percent, realistic one. So it's a little bit lower than Dubai, but I will tell you that's higher than let's say Los Angeles, New York, London, Toronto, and other top markets. So yeah, with Dubai that might be lower, but that's still good. Still good. Still good. And we come to the key point based on my point of view, which is that Costa del Sol is a limited space. Everyone wants to be here, but we cannot grow more than what we have available. If you analyze the urbanistic plans here and you look behind us, we have mountains. So we have just a reduced part of land where we can develop. So. And that scarcity increases the value and the investor return on investment. Another perspective: if today you want to do as a developer something as what we are doing, okay, you don't have a lot of opportunities of land. You just have selected places where you can create a gated community with all these amenities. So for one investor, this is the key point: small offer, small supply, and huge demand from wealthy people. I mean, that's the trifecta right there: scarcity, huge demand, and demand from the wealthy people. So what do you see as the next three to five year outlook then here in Marbella? I see several things that are going to happen. Same as we came to Dar Global, I'm sure more people, more developers will come trying to create limited editions to provide value to this demand. Prices will keep growing, especially in the prime areas based on this thing: limited supply. And the main thing that I see, I see new markets coming. Same as we are having now people from North America, from Mexico, these markets are going to grow and we are going to change based on what demand. So the type of branded projects in design, hospitality, amenities that we will have to provide is going to be the key factor of how Marbella and Costa is going to change. Love it. And by the way, the fact that everyone speaks English here is similar to Dubai market, right? So it's easy for anybody from anywhere to move here because people ask me that all the time, do you speak Spanish? And although I do find personally that it's more respectful for me to try to learn the local language just because of the local people that live here, and I'm mostly in Estepona by the way, which is more still Spanish, and it's changing a lot because it is amazing, how Estepona has changed over the last five years. If you are visiting Estepona today, you will not recognize Estepona 5 years ago. It was like still the local small town with Andalusian DNA. It is. And now it's full of people from Europe, from Netherlands, from Belgium, from Germany, from absolutely everywhere. And they love it because they still have the balance between the international half but keeping it very Spanish, our DNA. Yes. Which is what at the end of the day here we sell even more: the lifestyle and the culture than the project. For instance, in our case, being a global developer that we are bringing the top brands. Sometimes when we are having presentations with clients, we start, we say who we are, what we do. But before we speak about our project, we speak about why Spain. What are our attributes? Respecting the DNA here. I mean, you're trying to melt the two together, not take over. Exactly. That's so this is something that represents where we are. And even we are putting first the location, the lifestyle, and the things than the property. So whether you sell more the property or the lifestyle, here lifestyle is an amazing selling point. And once you are here and they visit this place, the global clients that haven't been here, they are impressed with this place. To that point, I love what you just said and I find that even I incorporate that personally: of respecting the DNA of where I am, whether it's slowing down and not expecting everything to be as quick as it was before, and trying to learn the language, and immerse myself, and truly enjoying the siestas, and especially when you're coming from Dubai where everything is quick. Oh my god. And traffic immediately. Yes. It's like New York. I mean, yes. So absolutely very different. And I'm trying to respect that DNA. But what DNA of Dar Global are you bringing here that's unique to your brand in Marbella? Good question. So our DNA, as Dar Global, first of all, you know it, we are Dar Global. Our name says it: global. You know, Dar means home, means home in Arabic, and global. We are the global home. Our DNA, I remember, first video I watched, long time ago, about Dar Global. It says something like: the global looking for the global investor and to provide global citizens in the global markets, in the international market. So our DNA is to do branded residences in the top international markets in partnership with the most exclusive brands and with the highest standards. So this is what we are bringing to Marbella and why Marbella, because this is the place where we can do that, out of the regions where we are already. We are in Marbella. We are a company listed in the London stock exchange today, which something that in terms of transparency and financial strength gives a lot of security to investors. And we are not growing just in Spain. We have just announced that we are opening an office in New York, probably soon in Miami also. Okay. We have just announced Greece, Maldives apart from Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman where we have an amazing project. So we have a global presence but in key markets where we can connect ideally our clients, make them to invest everywhere to diversify their investment in different markets: the ones that are more investment driven with the ones that are more lifestyle driven. So this is the key aspect. That's beautiful. I love how you said all that. You know, in Dubai we talk so much about how the developer matters. So for example, even if you have the same land and this is developer A and this is developer B, they are not going to provide you the same lifestyle end-user experience nor the same investor ROI. So that is the reason why I was very thoughtful and specific about who my first developer was going to be to have here on what is going to be the Spain Connect. This is probably going to be on my GG Benitez International YouTube channel because I too am a global real estate agent who has been focused significantly in Dubai, but I'll be talking about Spain because it just seems like a natural addition to everything. And one other thing: is off-plan popular here in Marbella? Is it popular? But if we connect it with Dubai, it's totally different. Why? Here the sales speed is absolutely different. In Dubai, our projects are sold off-plan totally. Here, no. Why? Because it's still a market of again end users. Most of the transactions, this is not a transactional market. Most of the transactions happen when properties are near completion and even more in the high-end market. So if you do a research and you take all the new developments with prices over 2 million euros, you will see how the sales speed is higher when they are near completion, not off-plan. So then let me ask you, does that provide an opportunity for investors to get in before completion and make their capital appreciation? Are they able, like they are in Dubai, to sell their off-plan project before handover? Correct. In our case, we do it because we want to replicate our DNA. We do it subject to all the regulations here. Okay. This market, being not as not having the same speed that in Dubai, is very secure and regulated. So all the things that we do as resales have to be subject to regulations. So we do it but in a different way with different regulations. But that is an opportunity for an investment in Marbella in 2025: to purchase an off-plan project and then sell it beforehand. Absolutely. And coming back to the numbers, we have for instance a report from Savills. Okay. For our projects where they estimate a capital appreciation between the off-plan stage and the handover stage, average realistic 25%. And not putting on the table the additional value that you mentioned before: of the value that provides the brand, the fact that we are talking about a limited edition, we are doing something that nobody does. 25% capital appreciation anticipated before handover between the off-plan now, between today off-plan stage and completion, handover. That's a significant number, though. And keep in mind that we are the first ones that we are doing here, the branded residences concept. So probably this capital appreciation will be even higher. We always talk about realistic numbers, but could be higher because we are selling limited edition. Exactly. In the in two years and a half, nobody will be doing another Lamborghini project or another Missoni project. So the fact of the limited edition is a key point when we talk about this potential capital. Absolutely. In fact, and we'll we're going to do like a three-part series right now. So we'll end this part one now. But just to segue that the next interview that we're going to do is talking about those branded residences because I believe Knight Frank had come out with a report that said in Dubai and I believe it was 84 or 86% greater premiums on branded residences. It's a huge part of the market in Dubai and Dubai is really taking ownership of that with branded residences. Although I still believe not all branded residences are made equally. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. We have to we have to speak about it when we speak about brands. In our case, and the typical question is, what means the brand in your case? Exactly. And there are fake co-brandings. There are real co-brandings. In our case, what we do is we integrate the brand, and you will see when we will explore the Residencia for instance, a clear example of a real limited edition in terms of how we are taking a brand officially. Who by the way is even legally reflected in our contracts. How so vital. We are bringing this brand to create something real, a real limited edition. And this is how, this is the key point of how we create and protect wealth for our clients with a brand integrating them officially in the project, which is huge for investors. I know I talk about that all the time because that seems to be the pool that I work with, and these are all key points. So Caesar, I am so grateful that you are here. This was perfect, I think, intro to why Marbella and what makes Marbella a great investment in 2025. And with that, I will say please stay tuned. Thank you for joining us for this Marbella market update with Dar Global. What's clear is that Marbella attracts a very different buyer than Dubai: lifestyle and legacy here, returns and investment there, although here as well, just different. Both markets are strong, serving different goals. And as we mentioned at the start and touched upon a bit, there's one specific type of project outperforming the rest. According to Knight Frank, branded residences command an 86% price premium in Dubai compared to standard luxury homes, and nearly 70% of global high net worth investors say they want to own one. Dar Global is behind two of the most exciting branded residence launches here on the coastal del Sol: Lamborghini Residencia Tiara in Benhavis and Missoni Maria in Cesaris. We'll explore both in our next two episodes. What makes them unique and why branded residences are now the fastest growing luxury real estate trend worldwide. So make sure you subscribe to my GG Benitez International YouTube channel where you'll find The Dubai Connect podcast and now the Spain Connect podcast, and turn on notifications. You're not going to want to miss the next episodes.