THE HOLIDAY HOME EVOLUTION THE NEW SECOND PRIME-HOME

WORDS: MICHEL CRUZ

THE HOLIDAY HOME EVOLUTION TO A SECOND PRIME-HOME

From the classic primary residence and holiday house via Covid lockdowns and modern technology to remote working and extended ‘workations’, a new residential property usage has been born – the Second Prime Home.

A perfect hideaway villa within the beauty of the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia

There was a time when it was rather simple, or simply defined. One had a main residence, usually in the suburbs or downtown area of a major business-orientated city, perhaps a little weekend getaway in the country, and little by little, more and more people also acquired holiday homes in warm and sunny climes. This process really began to take off in the 1960s and 1970s, but came of age by the turn of the century, when Europeans, North Americans and Middle Easterners alike sought to find their own private oasis of tropical or Mediterranean summer bliss. Such summer holiday homes – be they villas, bungalows or apartments by the sea – were also used from autumn to spring for golf holidays, or among more mature owners for more extended winter ‘hibernation’ stays, away from the cold climes of the North. Gradually, these stays grew longer, until more and more retired people traded in the cities and towns of their home countries for the sunny coastal resort areas of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and also the USA and even such locations as the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and Dubai.

From holiday to home

Over time, they were joined by people who built new lives and also livelihoods in such locations, but just recently the evolution of the second home has taken another decisive turn. Modern means of telecommunications, the transfer of work files and the ease of travel had already begun to create a new kind of buyer keen on longer stays or even fulltime relocation to beautiful sunny coastal spots. More and more younger families were searching for more than the conventional holiday apartment or classic villa, and demanding the kind of amenities designed for longer-term living. Fully appointed modern apartments and compact villas with home automation luxuries, open-plan indoor and outdoor space, storage facilities as well as high levels of year-round comfort became increasingly in demand, spurring a whole new direction in the design, fitting and development of what had since transitioned from a ‘holiday home’ into a ‘second home’. The Covid-19 pandemic that erupted in 2020 and since enveloped people in sporadic lockdowns not only sped up the adoption of remote communication tools, but also had a profound psychological impact.

Buyers are looking for larger villas for year-round living Mykonos, Cyclades, Greece

Mediterranean quality of life is what many buyers seek Jávea, Costa Blanca, Spain

To Second Prime

The experience of the confinement made a lot of people take stock, and review such elements of their lives as work and living conditions. There has been a discernible move away from crowded downtown areas back to the more spacious suburbs and even the open nature of the countryside, but also a reasserted move towards second and also permanent homes in seaside destinations such as the Mediterranean shorelines of Europe. All, and especially the latter, are lifestyle-driven trends, made easier by the rapidly expanding adoption of remote communication tools and remote working methods. Where once everyone had to report for duty in large corporate offices, that custom is now on the wane. It won’t disappear altogether, by any means, but modern forms of communication and remote working make it possible for many of today’s professionals to make their contribution from their home offices or head to co-working spaces round the corner from their houses. This has facilitated a move back to the gardens and low-density living of the suburbs, but also made it possible to spend large periods of time working while travelling and/or moving to a distant but well-connected lifestyle location in the sun.

A top-down trend

As with most lifestyle trends, spending extended periods of time in one home to the point where it actually becomes your ‘second prime residence’ is something that the most sophisticated homeowners have been doing for some time already, and as a result the Second Prime Home has been around for a while now. It’s just that it’s catching on among a growing number of people and spreading across the income groups, and in so doing is affecting the design of a new generation of what used to be holiday apartments and villas. The result is increasingly modern and well-facilitated properties with more space, greenery and work areas.

And so is born the Second Prime Home, and along with it a more fluid concept of residence and holiday home, where families increasingly divide their time between two or more properties in different parts of a country, continent or indeed the world.

“Switzerland, especially the German-speaking part, is an important traditional source of investors in second homes – and now second prime residences – in the Mediterranean region.”

Marianne Walde

Walde & Partner Immobilien AG Zürich, SWITZERLAND

GREEK ISLANDS

by Yannis Ploumis

Ploumis Sotiropoulos Real Estate, Athens, Greece.

Can you summarise the market in your area in 2021?

The market in Greece was pretty stagnant during the first five months of 2021 because of Covid and the quarantines imposed. However, from May 2021 onwards, sales surged and prices began to rise rapidly - up by more than 100% by the end of the year.

How do you see things developing in 2022?

The new year started with a large increase in sales, and despite the war in Ukraine there has been ongoing interest in Greek properties.

What kind of buyers are coming to your area?

Our buyers currently largely consist of Greeks, Greeks from abroad, UK citizens, Egyptians, Arabs, Swiss and other EU citizens.

What kind of real estate and lifestyle are they looking for?

People are mostly looking for vacation homes, longer-term homes in Athens and smaller apartments for investment purposes and Golden Visas.

Has the market changed a lot over the past few years?

Greece left the financial crisis in 2019 and since then the real estate market has recovered almost fully and is now booming, even with Covid and the war in Ukraine. You can say that, in spite of everything, it is in a healthy state.

THE BATTLE FOR A NEW MOBILITY

ELECTRIC VS. HYDROGEN

As the world stands on the threshold of a new industrial revolution – an era of great technological and infrastructural/ societal transition – is electricity really the solution or are there other, more viable options?

The hype is everywhere, from Elon Musk’s Tesla being the celebrated darling of the stock markets to environmental tech start-ups acquiring billion-dollar valuations even before they reach the stage of IPO, but are all these unicorns and promises of a clean, ‘green’ new future really all they are made out to be, or is the path to sustainable energy and mobility still littered with obstacles?

Cars of the future look a little different

ELECTRIC VERSUS HYDROGEN

The level of hype and urgency portrayed by media, investors and now also government officials feels very contemporary, something of the past few years, but the debate about alternative, sustainable energy sources has been raging on since at least the 1980s, if not before. For all the wasted talk and lost opportunities of bygone decades, though, it seems that now there really is a sense of urgency to transition away from fossil fuels – but as over 70% of our energy supply still comes from this source and renewable energies such as wind and solar power still struggle to make up the difference, just how close are we to a solution?

At the moment, much of the focus of hope (and investment), for mobility at least, is set upon electricity, though hydrogen, which has also been researched for decades now, refuses to be defeated just yet. Which of these two energy sources will provide the ultimate solution for the world’s needs, or will it take a combination of both to keep us moving? ELECTRIC

With electric vehicles (EVs) all the rage right now and major car manufacturers swapping over wholesale in the coming years, the days of the combustion engine seem all but numbered. Within this fast-growing market, there are some distinct categories, notably non-plugin hybrids, plugin hybrids and full-electric cars.

Non-plugin hybrids currently make up the bulk of EV sales, followed by plugin hybrids and full-electric cars. The problem with the latter centres upon concerns about limited driving range, accompanied by the fact that if you drive too fast or in hilly terrain, the batteries have a tendency to run dry quickly. This accounts for the relative lack of commercial success, and limited range remains a problem to be solved in the coming years. Hybrids, on the other hand, seem to be a more sensible transition from over a century of dependency of combustion engines, and this sector can already draw on around 30 years of experience and development, especially on the part of Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi. Reliability factors are less of an issue here, also because one can always fall back on a petrol engine that (in the case of a non-plugin hybrid) backs up the electric motor.

This remains the preferred option among hybrid buyers, although plugin hybrids are also gaining ground. As of yet, their popularity suffers from the lack of sufficient supply of recharging points, an infrastructure that will be growing exponentially in the coming years at fuel stations, carparks and also in the garages and driveways of private homes. Once this infrastructure is sufficiently in place, the plugin hybrid will be in a position to properly challenge its non-plugin equivalent.

Tesla has driven the electric car revolution