Staff Reporter
HE sits in his central Benahavis office scrolling up and down a detailed computer document with plus and minus figures etched into a right hand column.
It’s his Google Analytics home page and, perhaps no surprise, almost every entry has a plus sign…and a big plus at that.
It is all part of the masterplan for Scott Marshall’s highly successful real estate business Propertiespain.
With an incredible 20-something websites – all on Benahavis – he can now pinpoint the exact area, and even urbanisation his potential clients are looking to buy in.
Finally launching two months ago, the sites, which relate to different developments and schemes, are all interlinked and report back to his mother website www.propertiespain.com.
“It’s taken a long time to build so it is very exciting that it is all now working,” explains the amicable agent, 40, who has lived in Benahavis for most of his life.
“It is an incredible tool that really helps me understand what my clients are looking for,” he adds.
Marshall, who is married to a local Spanish girl, grew up and has lived in Benahavis his entire life, except one year living on an oil rig off Scotland after his degree in mechanical engineering.
“It was only after a spending a year in Aberdeen that I realised what a great quality of life we have here,” he explained. “So I came straight back out here and started working for a company, selling entertainment systems along the coast, before going into real estate in Mijas.”
Now the proud owner of one of the Costa del Sol’s most thriving agencies, Scott’s love for his home town is very clear.
“People always talk about Marbella and Estepona, but I think Benahavis is the real hidden gem of the coast,” he says.
“The town hall is the wealthiest per inhabitant in the whole of Spain, which means there are all sorts of subsidies here that just don’t exist anywhere else.”
So when he decided to set up a property business in 2009, there was no better place for it to be based.
“It was such an easy decision for me to set up here, because I’ve spent nearly all my life here,” he says.
The son of well-known local sculptor David Marshall, Scott spent nine years managing three real estate businesses in Mijas Costa and Torrox, for a UK-based firm. When the company folded in 2009, Scott decided that now was the time to go it alone.
“Everyone thought I was crazy setting up right in the middle of the financial crisis. But in the first year alone I made back everything I had invested, and since then we’ve more or less doubled our business year on year.”
Nestled in the mountainside only seven kilometres from the coast, Benahavis is home to nine golf courses and so many restaurants that it is often called the dining room of the Costa del Sol.
Propertiespain takes advantage of the region’s diverse geography to offer a huge variety of properties, from well-priced or luxury apartments to mountainside villas and mansions, and everything in between.
Benahavis’ location has protected it from the notorious overdevelopment of much of the Costa del Sol.
“You’re not in some souvenir town, it still feels like you’re in Spain. It’s still very traditional and authentically Spanish,” he explains.
In fact, Scott’s father David was one of the very first expats to arrive in the area, after moving out here from Scotland more than 50 years ago.
“When my father first arrived there was almost nothing here. But it has really flourished thanks to the work of my father.
“Best of all, he is capitalising on the boom in the property market.
“The property market has really picked up over the last couple of years.
“In particularly the British buyers are up by 25 to 30% this year alone and we are having our best months ever.”
“That we’re a local company really makes a difference – we know everyone here, the sellers, the postman, the local butcher.”
Visit www.propertiespain.com or call 952 855 489
