Guest: Enrique “Quique” Berazadi, founder of SotoEstates
I recently took the podcast out of the office and sat down with Enrique “Kiki” Barazadi, founder of Sotogrande Estates and one of the people who has known Sotogrande for almost as long as Sotogrande has existed. His family first came here in 1968, only a few years after the resort was founded, and he has watched the place evolve from an isolated private community into the international destination we know today. He is also the creator of El Libro de Sotogrande, two photographic books documenting the people, places and history of the resort.
What followed was less a property interview and more a journey through the history of Sotogrande.
Sotogrande Was Almost Designed to Be Difficult to Find
In the late 1960s, getting here was an expedition. Málaga was hours away, the motorway didn’t exist and Gibraltar airport would soon close. Kiki remembers arriving through Guadarranque when there were little more than a few houses, open land and chickens around.
And yet somebody looked at this isolated piece of southern Spain and imagined golf courses, polo fields, a beach club and enormous private plots. That isolation may actually have been Sotogrande’s greatest advantage, because development happened slowly, the community was tiny and the lifestyle grew organically around golf, polo, the sea and people entertaining each other in their homes. It wasn’t trying to be a luxury destination. It simply became one.
The Houses Changed Because the Way We Live Here Changed
The original Sotogrande villas were holiday houses. You came for summer, so heating, insulation and year-round practicality were hardly priorities. Today families live here permanently, children attend the international school, owners work remotely and buyers expect modern construction, technology, underfloor heating and homes designed for twelve months of the year. That is why so much of the older Sotogrande is now being rebuilt. What is interesting is that the next phase of the Sotogrande property market may not be about endless expansion at all, but about regenerating what is already here.
The Buyer Changed. The Sotogrande Personality Didn’t
Over the decades, Sotogrande has attracted Americans, Spaniards, French, Belgians, British and now buyers from all over the world, but the type of person attracted to the place has remained remarkably consistent. They tend to value family, privacy, sport and space rather than visibility. You can own a €20 million villa here and nobody particularly cares what car you arrive in. That is perhaps one of the clearest differences between Sotogrande and Marbella. Marbella became increasingly visible and glamorous, while Sotogrande remained more understated. And that may be precisely why its identity has survived.
The Future of Sotogrande May Be About What We Don’t Change
I asked Kiki where he thinks Sotogrande will be in another ten or fifteen years, and his answer was surprisingly simple. He doesn’t think it will change that much. La Reserva will continue developing, old villas will become new ones and the community will become even more international, but there is limited space and still a very particular culture protecting the place from becoming just another luxury development on the Mediterranean. Perhaps that is the real challenge now, not figuring out how much more we can build, but understanding which parts of Sotogrande should never be rebuilt at all.
At the end I asked Kiki to describe the Sotogrande he remembers in one word. Paradise. Today, he laughed, perhaps there are a few too many people. Maybe that is simply what happens when you keep a secret for more than fifty years.
🎙️ This post draws from insights shared in one of our episodes, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast. For more on Sotogrande’s insider tips, tune in and explore other episodes too.
To discuss areas, schools, and commuting options, or to see a short list of homes that fit your brief, reach out to Noll Sotogrande Real Estate, our incredible Sponsor co-owned with Stephanie Noll, without whom none of this would be possible.
Thank you, Charlie.
