Buying a Property to Renovate in Mallorca
Key takeaways
- The renovation figure is available before completion, and most buyers get it afterwards.
- A survey reports condition. A building company reports cost. They are different documents.
- Companies will visit a property you have not bought yet, and it is normal to ask.
- The number is only useful while you can still negotiate, phase, or walk away.
The asking price and what the property costs you are two different numbers, and the difference between them is the work. On older property that difference can be larger than anything in the negotiation, and it is the one figure most buyers do not have at the moment they actually need it.
Get the work priced before you complete
This is the whole article in one line. A company that renovates on the island can walk a property you have not bought, and most will. What comes back is a scope and a range against it, which is precisely what a survey does not give you.
Before completion that number is something you can act on. You can negotiate with it, phase the project around it, or decide the property is not for you. After completion it is simply what you now owe, and the property has stopped being a decision and become a commitment.
A survey and a builder answer different questions
| What you want to know | Who answers it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Is the building sound | A surveyor or technical team | Condition, defects, and what needs attention |
| What will the work cost | A building company | A scope and a price range against it |
| Is the layout I want possible | Both, in that order | What is structural, then what changing it costs |
| What may be built on the plot | A technical team | The answer that decides whether a plan exists at all |
Buyers who arrange one and not the other usually end up knowing the condition and not the cost, which is the less useful half. Both together are still a small fraction of what the mistake they prevent would cost.
What is worth establishing before you sign
- What the electrical installation is, and whether it can stay.
- Plumbing and drainage, and where the waste actually goes.
- Damp, and whether it has a live source or only a history.
- Which internal walls are structural, if the layout is changing.
- The roof, the beams, and anything timber in an older building.
- Whether the plot allows an extension, if one is part of the plan.
- How machinery, deliveries and waste will reach the property.
- In a flat, what the community of owners permits and how long it takes.
- On rural property, water, power, waste treatment and the access track.
The order that works
View it a second time with somebody who renovates for a living. Get a written scope, not a price. Send that same scope to several companies. Put the resulting figure into the purchase decision. Start the work after completion and not a day before, however agreeable the seller is being about access.
The audience page for this is property buyers, and if the property is likely to need taking back to its structure, complete refurbishment covers what that scope contains.
Will a company really quote a property I do not own?
Yes, and it happens constantly on this island. It is pricing rather than booking, so nothing is committed on either side, and companies would far rather quote before a purchase than be asked to fix a bad one afterwards.
Should I tell the seller I am pricing the work?
You will usually have to, since somebody has to let the company in. Agents arrange it routinely and it is not an unusual request. It is also a reasonable thing to raise during a negotiation rather than to hide.
How firm will the figure be?
Firm enough to decide with and not firm enough to sign. Expect a range, expect it to narrow once walls are open, and expect a good company to say plainly which parts of its number are assumptions.
Is it worth buying a property that needs everything?
Often, and it depends on what it costs to put right against what a finished equivalent costs. That is arithmetic rather than instinct, and it needs the renovation figure in it, which is the entire argument for getting one early.
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