Spanish property appeals to overseas investors

Foreign buyers are continuing to snap up Spanish property, new figures show.

The latest data released by Property Registrars, based on home sales inscribed in the registry, reveals that foreign buyers were involved in 14,429 Spanish property sales between April and June –  up 29.1 per cent on the same period last year.

Spanish property sales to foreigners accounted for 13.4 per cent of all completed transactions in the second quarter of 2016.

In the lead-up to Brexit, British investors remained the number one source country of foreign Spanish property buyers. The figures show that 20 per cent of all foreign property sales were made by British buyers, followed by Germans (8 per cent) and French and Swedes (7 per cent).

British demand for Spanish property was up by 29 per cent year-on-year, which may come as a surprise to some, as demand was expected to slow in the build-up to the Brexit vote. However, it is expected that the next set of figures will see a marked decline in British transactions, as this will cover the period in which the UK voted to leave the EU.

The figures show that Swedish demand was up the most – by 60 per cent – followed by Italian demand (46 per cent), and Chinese demand (31 per cent).

Swedish buyers bought more than 1,000 homes in Spain between April and May – the first time this milestone has been reached in a single quarter. The increased demand from China is likely to be an offshoot of the Golden Visa scheme which allows non-EU nationals the opportunity to invest in a property in exchange for a residency visa.

The Registrar’s figures also show that their House Price Index rose by 7.48 per cent between the second quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2016.

Article published 15th September 2016