Two years ago she took her bags to Tenerife. Today, Florence Beaumont (29) has fully acquired a taste for luxury real estate. The Bruges native, who founded the Les Coquettes Lifestyle concept hair salon when she was 19, is now going to work full-time on the Costa Blanca North. There she is setting up an office of the Antwerp-based company Nieuwbouw in Spanje. A conversation about chic villas, how coincidences define a career and the Ibiza vibe.
At 19, Florence opened the hair salon Les Coquettes in the Predikherenstraat in Bruges with her mother. The salon for men, women and children became a success story but in 2020 the time was ripe for a new chapter. "For some time I had felt the need for a salon with more space and with a slightly more luxurious touch. So we opened a new business called Les Coquettes Lifestyle on the corner of Rue Braamberg and Rue Jozef Suvéestraat. It is a combination of hair salon with store and coffee bar. This business is still my company but I have a team of about ten employees on site."
In 2021, the talented Bruges native decided to move to Tenerife because she has family living there. "It is rather by chance that I ended up in the real estate sector. I have always been entrepreneurial and I enjoy going out with clients and showing them the region and the culture. I sold luxury real estate in Tenerife for 2 years which got me noticed by Nieuwbouw Tenerife, the Antwerp company behind Nieuwbouw In Spanje and market leader on the island. So now they took me on board as the person in charge of Costa Blanca North. My job is to open an office within the year in Moraira where I live in the meantime. For me, Tenerife had become too limited in terms of offering to clients."
1 million euros
Was it a difficult step to leave her hometown of Bruges for good? "You have to have perseverance because nothing was handed to me. So I took Spanish lessons and passed an exam to obtain an official real estate agent certificate. On the other hand, the weather here is always lovely and there is a kind of Ibiza vibe here."
However, there is still the connection to Belgium. "The customer can come to our headquarters in Antwerp where he gives his preference for a Spanish region. Then he is sent on site and we go out to show the different real estate projects to that potential buyer and do a market study with him to investigate what he can get for his money. For a luxury apartment with large terrace and sea view, you have to pay 500,000 euros. For a villa with a pool and sea view, we are talking about a budget of 1 million euros."
In fact, it looks like Alicante will become the new destination for buying luxury real estate in 2024. For years, the region has seen strong growth with an annual increase of no less than 25%. "Since it is mainly foreign buyers and the region is enormously popular with the Fleming, we decided to further strengthen and expand our position in this region as well. It is in that respect that we have brought in the ideal person with Florence," says Carl Vorsselmans, CEO of NB-Estates.
Filip Berger, business development manager of New Construction in Spain has long seen a movement from Ibiza - where prices are astronomical - to the mainland and more specifically the region around Moraira. "While overall house sales in Spain fell by 12%, luxury property sales in Alicante increased by as much as 55% by 2023. Alicante is increasingly establishing itself as the new destination for those looking for an exclusive property on the Spanish costa. Belgians make up 15% of the total number of foreign buyers.The coastal towns of Dénia Moraira, Benissa, Altea, Calpe and Jávea are sought-after locations because of their beautiful beaches and marinas."
Bron: HLN