Welcome to September. We're back.

A corner of Madrid
PUBLISHED ON

Septiembre 10, 2026

CATEGORY

Real Estate

There is a path on the island of La Toja that runs along the ría — or what looks like the sea, because in Galicia it is sometimes hard to tell the difference — lined with hydrangeas. Houses on either side. Each with its own style, its own story, its own character. Some look straight out onto the water, with pine-covered cliffs that at certain moments make you think you are in Mallorca or on the Costa Brava. Adolfo Domínguez and Amancio Ortega have houses there. That is no coincidence.

Whenever I travel, I open Idealista. It is an occupational habit I have stopped trying to correct. The app locates you and shows you what is on the market. 1.5 million, 2.6, 4.2. Expensive, yes. But with square metres, with class, with sea. And with something that is increasingly hard to find in Madrid: real room to breathe.

Then I went to Provence. Toulouse, Avignon with its imposing Rhône — the kind of river that stops you in your tracks because you were not expecting anything like it. Arles, where Van Gogh lived and painted his famous Café Terrace at Night. I pictured myself living there, in a house with a courtyard, bougainvillea, views of the Roman amphitheatre, spending my days reading and watching films. Houses are cheaper than in Madrid. Of course it is not Cannes, or Paris, or Monte Carlo — those are more expensive. But there is a human scale to those places that Madrid has been losing along the way.

The detox

This summer I managed something I had not achieved in years: not opening my email for a single day. Total disconnection. The kind of pause your body and mind need after months with too many fronts open at once.

Travelling and looking at houses in other settings always reminds me why I do this. Because the space you live in matters. Because the light, the views, the scale of a room change how you feel every morning. Because there is something about a well-made house — in La Toja, in Arles, in Almagro — that goes beyond the price per square metre.

The September wake-up call

And then you come back to Madrid.

Problems on site. More expensive materials. The market on hold — that strange state of July and August when everything is suspended and nobody quite knows what will happen once autumn gets going. The same question, over and over: what strategy to follow? Where is the product? Who is going to buy, and at what price?

September is always a slap of reality. But it is also a beginning. The market starts moving again, buyers return from their summers — some from Galicia, others from Provence, others from Dubai or Mexico City — and you have to be ready.

Welcome to September. We are back.