Today we thought we would take this opportunity to talk about market trends and the revolution that has taken place within new construction over the last five years.

The trend for quite a few years was the focus from developers and renovators to offer the ultra modern – shiny white box – sometimes known as ‘sugar cubes’ in the industry. Developers and renovators built them and continued to do so because they were selling – sometimes in their dozens – with developers building a 100 or so one on plot – all identical – all exactly the same!

One of the funniest things we ever saw was a developers billboard that read ’25 unique villas’ – that were all absolutely identical, they obviously did not have the same understanding of the word unique as we do or as indeed the dictionary does …. haha.

However, trends move on and no longer can developers or renovators rely on the ‘one size fits all’ approach to construction and renovations, the trend has moved – developments where there is an abundance of the same style of units are languishing on the market as buyers become more discerning and have a keener eye to detail.

So, how does someone stand out from the crowd now?

Well, what we are seeing is a shift towards a more organic approach to building and refurbishment – a sense of individuality, a strong and bold style whilst still keeping the integrity of a contemporary construction.

The use of natural materials giving both color and texture is now the current vogue – developers thinking about the landscapes in which the property sits, bringing the outdoors indoors and vice versa. We are seeing a much more prevalent use of stone and slate, treated and untreated wood, natural materials being used for kitchens instead of the typical shiny white gloss. Marble, Corinth, color!

We are even now seeing wall paper in striking and colourful patterns making a daring comeback to add character, gone are the plain and simply boring white walls.

Even swimming pools are seeing a resurgence with exciting new options including SMART technology included, a shift from the typical blue tile to green and even black – or one we saw recently which was pearlescent metallic!

So if developers or renovators want to get ahead of the game, yes, follow the current trend and bring in those textures and colours – be bold!

Keep the simple lines of modern construction and emphasize where you can with natural products …. however the savvy developer will be now thinking where will trends go beyond this year ….. what will be the next new big thing?

So, let’s take a look at a few examples of ‘past contemporary’ and ‘contemporary today’ as you can see in the pictures above.

Processed those? Right.

Just look at the differences, it’s like night and day!

Now obviously we’re not saying the first properties are not desirable, as they certainly are in their own way, however the trend seems to have moved on and the second lot of photos show properties that offer a certain warmth, homeliness and chic vibe which is certainly high on our clients’ wish lists at the moment.

One company that Verdin Property particularly enjoy working with, and who stand out from the crowd when it comes to design and style, is Marbella developer Bright, who along with their principle interior design studio UDesign (who’s work has featured in this blog), are creating incredible luxury ‘passive’ and ‘sustainable’ houses that ooze class, sophistication and a harmony with nature.

Whilst trends come and go, the current focus towards warm colours, textures and innovative interior designs seems to be, at least for now, the way forward.

W: Verdin Property