Buying a Property to Renovate in Mallorca
Many people buy on Mallorca intending to start work straight after completion. The useful moment to learn what that work costs is before the purchase is final, not after it. Describe the property you are looking at, and we pass the request to renovation and building companies on the island that price this kind of job.
The renovation number belongs in the purchase decision
The asking price and what the property costs you are two different numbers, and the gap between them is the work. On older Mallorca property that gap can be larger than anything in the negotiation, and it is the one figure most buyers do not have at the moment they need it.
It is available earlier than people expect. A company that renovates on the island can walk a property you have not bought yet, and most will. What comes back is a scope and a price range against it, which is the thing a survey does not give you: a surveyor reports condition, a building company reports cost.
That number is worth having while you can still act on it. Before completion it is something to negotiate with, to phase around, or to walk away from. Afterwards it is simply what you now owe, and the property has stopped being a decision.
Worth establishing before you complete
- What the electrical installation is, and whether it stays
- Plumbing, drainage, and where the waste actually goes
- Damp, and whether it has a source or only a history
- Which of the internal walls are structural
- Roof, beams and anything timber in an older building
- Whether the layout you want is possible in the building you are buying
- What the plot allows, if an extension is part of the plan
- Access for machinery, deliveries and taking waste away
- In a flat, what the community of owners allows and when
- On rural property, water, power, waste treatment and the track to the door
Pricing the work while you are still buying
Every step here happens before the keys change hands, and none of it commits you to anything.
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01
View it with the work in mind
A second viewing alongside somebody who renovates for a living is a different viewing. They look at the parts a listing photograph never shows.
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02
Get the scope in writing
Not a price yet. A written description of what the job contains is the thing that makes two later quotes comparable to each other.
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03
Ask several companies to price that scope
Same description, same assumptions, different companies. Differences between the numbers then tell you something instead of confusing you.
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04
Put the number into the decision
Negotiate with it, phase the work around it, or use it to walk away. All three are reasonable, and all three need the figure first.
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Start after completion, not before
Work on a property you do not yet own is a risk worth nobody taking, however agreeable the seller is being.
Where to go next
Complete refurbishment
Structural work
How your request reaches a company
Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for a renovation on a property you are buying goes to the renovation and building companies on our list; they quote the work and carry it out, and any agreement is between you and the company you pick.
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01
Describe the job
Tell us the property, roughly what you want and where it is. Photographs and a rough plan help, though neither is required.
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We match it
The request goes to companies that work in your area and take on this kind of job at this size.
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03
They quote you
Each company contacts you directly with its own price, timing and approach. We do not set any of it.
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04
You compare and choose
Put the quotes side by side and take the one you want, or none of them. Using the site costs you nothing.
Can I get quotes before I own the property?
Yes, and it is normal. A company will usually visit with you or with the agent. What it cannot do is start, so treat the visit as pricing rather than as booking anything.
Is this the same as a survey?
No, and both are worth having. A survey tells you the condition of what you are buying. A building company tells you what changing it costs. Buyers who arrange one and not the other usually end up with the condition and without the number.
How accurate can a price be before anything is opened up?
Accurate enough to decide with, not accurate enough to sign. Expect a range, expect it to narrow once walls are open, and expect any company worth using to say plainly which parts of its figure are assumptions.
Should the work start straight after completion?
Often it should. An empty property is the cheapest one to renovate and the programme is shortest when nobody is living around it. What decides the start is whether the scope is settled, not whether the keys have arrived.
Does asking commit me to anything?
No. Sending a request costs nothing, and if the purchase does not happen the quotes simply lapse. Nobody pays to be compared and you are not charged either way.
Get quotes before you complete
Describe the property you are buying and let several companies price the same scope.