Buying Property in Andorra: Factors that Affect the Price
- elizabethhelenpier
- Jan 2
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 7
As with any real estate market, when buying property in Andorra the price is affected by many factors and peculiarities. Andorran house prices do follow regular trends when it comes to age and location of property for example but other characteristics that are specific to Andorra and to the Pyrenees or other mountainous areas, can have a substantial effect on value. We are listing below the main aspects that affect property value in the Andorra real estate market.
Property typology
If looking at the statistics of pricing trends in Andorra, you will notice the typology of the build will affect the value per square meter. For example, when buying property in Andorra, houses will usually sell for a slightly lower price per meter squared compared to apartments. This is due to houses generally being in the higher price ranges overall, meaning the demand is lower than for apartments with fewer m2 and a lower average total value.
Age of property
Age can affect many areas of a property including: a need for new roofing or new exterior cladding, thin walls, water infiltration, damp, size of parking spaces, lack of outdoor space and even a lack of the much needed “suitable for living certificate”, among other issues.
Location within the parish
Although the price trend reports carried out by the Andorran government can be categorised by parishes, there is nothing published showing the property value between towns within the same parish. This knowledge is solely held by people like us, who know a lot about, or who are involved professionally in the real estate market in Andorra. A good example of big price differences within the same parish would be the towns of Vila vs. Les Bons in the Encamp parish or Aldosa vs. Arinsal in the La Massana parish. Some towns are known to have lower quality builds and are worth less per square meter than others, due to distance from certain areas. Comparatively, other towns are instead worth more than the average price of property in Andorra due to their position and sunlight angle.
Renovated status
Do not be fooled by the “Andorran renovation” of flats and houses. Nearly all property that comes on the market in Andorra will state in the advertisement that it has been recently renovated. A quick flick through the undesirable photos and you will be able to see the lack of renovation. Sadly, it is not a typing mistake, rather a cultural difference with this particular terminology. Here is Andorra, as in Spain, the word ‘renovated’ refers to anything that was changed from the original build. Therefore, as an example, a 70s build that was redone in the 90s is still considered, to some extent, renovated and will be described as such in the selling advert. The quality of renovations here can be quite inconsistent also. With some renovations going in the 2000€/m2 range, while others will be DIY jobs at a cost of 50€/m2.
Views
Common sense would infer that the views of any property would be obvious in the advertisement photos, but as you may have already experienced, it is often not the case. Instead you are shown pictures of views that have been taken from an angle or an absolute absence of any photo depicting a view. Furthermore, if you see a property in person with a big open field in front, the views will likely be built on one day soon. Lastly, if your property is in la Massana facing the river, it will soon have a highway built in front of it. These are just a few of many examples of how deceptive the "vista" might be.
Sunlight angle
By living in Andorra, you have the luxury of being located on the southern side of the Pyrenees Mountain range, giving for a mild climate and plenty of sunshine all year round. Nonetheless, despite the lack of overcast days, we live in between valleys made up of very large mountains. This means much fewer sunlight hours per day compared with neighbouring geographical zones such as the plains of Northern Spain. It is therefore paramount for many to get the maximum sunlight hours possible through their home windows. Not many properties face south here, so you must bear in mind whether you prefer morning or afternoon sun. You will also need to give thought as to how far up the mountain you will want to live for the sun and nature, versus how far you want to be from the town center. Lastly, consider what mountains are directly in front and how far away they stand from your property to avoid winter shading. Fret not in any case, we are here to help you on all these topics and guide you along the way.
Number of parking spaces and ski lockers
Parking spaces and ski lockers have a value separate to the apartment or liveable area of a
house you are buying. If an andorran apartment comes with no parking space, or a parking space but no locker, or instead two parking spaces with two lockers, then the value of the property can substantially change between these. To give you an idea, the average parking space in a modern building will sell for very approximately 30.000€. An average ski locker would sell for very approximately 10-15.000€. This value can be added or deducted on any property that does not come with a one locker and one parking, or if it comes with extra ones for example.
Proximity to ski resorts and to the capital
Property that is close to the center will be higher priced, as will property close to a ski resort. Having both at proximity will increase the value substantially compared with areas with distance to one or either. This is not an exact calculation, but it tells you why prices are so much lower in both Sant Julia and el Serrat in Ordino for example. This should not dissuade you from living in these areas, rather we often encourage the opposite if it suits you. Importantly, you are more likely to get more bang for your buck buying far from the center or the resorts or both.
Story height of an apartment
Paying more to be higher up in an apartment complex is a universal truth in many countries, however it is still worth a mention. Floor number matters when buying property in Andorra for various reasons such as the access to better views, more sunlight, distance from noise and from an exclusivity standpoint. Developers will often build the attic floors to a more luxury standard compared with the lower apartments. Furthermore, there will be an approximate 3-5% increase in price per story rise. The bottom floor by default should be the cheapest but it most often is not. This is because they habitually have a large terrace and/or garden attached to the flat. To sum it up, the ground floor and attic apartments are generally the ones most in demand, driving the price up for these real estate assets.
Old Stone Builds and Barn Conversions
The early 2000s and the release of TV programs such as Grand Designs, meant there was an increase in interest for old stone property and barn conversions in Andorra and worldwide. Until this day you can still get yourself a barn with plenty of land in rural France or Portugal for almost pennies. However, this is not the case in Andorra. Most of our original stone builds were knocked down in the 1970s to make way for modern architecture, much to the distain of the population now. This means there is minimal listed property in Andorra, and if they happen to appear on the market, it will often be with a very high price tag due to the scarcity and exclusive charm. Most old animal shelters and mountain refuges were built to the same standards as these old stone houses, so even our old animal barns are considered equivalent to gold dust if they include land, as people are very aware of their development potential into luxury mountain cabin houses. You will often pay 10-30% over market price for these old stone builds with land.
11. Price Speculation
Here at Pierce & Sharp, we have come up with a concept that we like to call “The Juan and Maria effect” which enables us to summarise the way price speculation works in the Andorra real estate market.
The story goes:
Juan and Maria have been neighbours since the early 90s. Juan sold his recently “renovated” southwest facing duplex apartment for €600,000 last year to a passive resident that was looking to invest in property to obtain residency. The passive resident in question clearly overpaid but was happy to pay the advertised full price due to the residency requirements.
Maria lives in the adjacent apartment which is a middle flat with west facing views. She, on the other hand, has had no work done to her apartment since the 1990s. Given a year has passed since Juan sold his apartment, Maria thinks the market value of her apartment must have increased past and over the sold price of Juan’s.
She puts her apartment up for sale for €700,000. It does not sell, but she is happy to sit and wait. It may sit for years on the market, but the price speculation has got the better of Maria and she is adamant to get the same money or more than Juan did on his apartment sale. Her apartment, in reality, is worth €450,000.
This is a summarised fictional story, based on recurring real feedback, and on the true trends of the Andorran real estate market.
Lack of Transparency in the Real Estate Market
The biggest problem we see when buying property in Andorra is a lack of transparency on all the factors spoken about previously, but also a lack of knowledge within the professional circuit of realtors in Andorra. Please see our blog post Working with the Andorra real estate agent, what to watch out for? for more information on how to deal with real estate agencies in Andorra.
