Spain’s housing market flourishing rapidly owing to the new properties and large influx of foreign investors.

Spain’s housing market flourishing rapidly owing to the new properties and large influx of foreign investors.

New construction is being snapped up by foreign buyers

which is great news for the Costa del sol.

The housing market of Spain seems to sound promising, due to the increase in the number of foreign buyers and also due to approvals given to several new construction projects.

Predominantly, the two main factors that triggered the last housing crash were the proliferation of newly built homes in Spain along with the large number of foreign investors, who had intent to realize profits hastily.

Apart from that, there were several other counter factors that played a role as well, but the unreliable builders and credit-backed buyers went into panic mode, thereby triggering the crash and putting all the financial entities in a tight position.

This would clearly create an impression that people were skeptical when they heard this news as they would not want the housing market of Spain to witness history again.

However, the best part is that things are not the same like how it was the last time. Now, there is no scope for unsustainable credit. Developers are also not desperately searching for land parcels and developing them rapidly. Instead, procedures are followed and the pace is not the same like how it was during the crash last time.

Based on the figures as released by Formento, plan approvals given increased by 57% during the first quarter of this year compared to the count of last year and the count this year stood at 16,782.

This figure is the highest for a single quarter since 201. However, it nowhere comes close to the previous count of 860,000 approvals back in 2006, which corresponded to 200,000+ approvals being granted on a quarterly basis.

Looking back, this was indeed crazy and a scary move, with a million properties being added in the housing market of Spain within a year. The pace at which properties are being developed in Spain now is manageable and the demand supply gap is maintained.

This has also resulted in the property prices increasing steadily, thereby attracting foreign investors, based on the findings of the Council of Property Registrars.

The statistics released by the Spanish body indicate that there is a 13% hike in the number of foreign nationals purchasing a property in Spain, with over 48,000 properties being sold to foreign investors in the previous year.

The British were the highest number of foreign investors at 21%, while the rest composed of buyers from France, Germany, Sweden and China. Due to the high demand by foreign nationals, property prices in Spain have started to pick up and there is a 6.9% increase quarterly.

Also, a total of 100,000 properties were sold in Spain in the first quarter of 2016, making it the highest in the past 12 quarters.

Spain attracts 1.4 million British tourists in April

Spain attracts 1.4 million British tourists in April

When compared to the statistics, the British tourist inflow to Spain increased by 18.3% in April.

Although people initially anticipated that Spain will see lesser tourists this April as the Easter holidays fell in March this year instead of April, the results regarding tourist info in Spain were surprising as per the statistics published by the central government of Spain, which indicate it to be otherwise.

In tandem with the number of tourist inflow from UK, international tourists from other countries to Spain also increased and the total tourist inflow stood at over 6.1 million, which is a 11.3% increase when compared to the statistics of the previous year. Every one among four international tourists who visit Spain is from UK and the number of tourists from UK also found a steep rise as it rose by 18.3% to 1.4 million. Tourist inflow from France and Germany also increased, but it did not increase as much as the tourist inflow from UK did. Tourists from France stood at 1.09 million, which was a 14.4% hike when compared to the previous year and the total tourists from Germany increased by a mere 2.9%, taking the total to 876,000.

The fourth highest foreign tourists to Spain were from Scandinavia, with the count being 408,500. Netherlands occupied the fifth spot this year, pushing Italy below and the increase of tourists from Netherlands was a whopping 37.4%, which corresponded to 322,000.

The total number of tourists from UK visiting Spain since the starting of 2016 increased by 19.4%, taking the count to 4.04 million, which attributes to the overall 13% hike in the foreign visitors. In total, Spain has attracted 18.1 million tourists till April. Tourists of Irish and Dutch origin have increased significantly this year, and the rise is 25.6% and 25.5% respectively.

The cumulative total of France and Germany are the second and third highest, which stands at 2.67 million after a 9.5% increase in the case of France while the count increased to 2.61 million or 6.7%, in the case of Germany.

Within Spain, the most preferred destination among foreign tourists in April, the month in which there is a transition from winter to spring, changed from Canary Islands to Catalunya. Nearly 25% of the foreign visitors preferred to visit Catalunya in April and the second preferred destination was Canaries, which stood at 17.5%, followed by Andalucia at 16.4%, Balearics at 12.6%, Comunidad Valenciana at 10.5% and Madrid at 9.1%.

The increase in the percentage varied from 2.5% to 17.7% spread across the 17 popular tourist destinations of Spain.

The significance of British tourists to Spain is clearly evident in the recent bulletin they had published. In most of the regions, UK was the major supplier of foreign tourists and the British were also among the second most tourists to other regions. It was only in the case of Madrid that UK did occupy neither the first nor the second places. However, this can be justified by the fact that people traveling from different continents prefer to stay in the capital of the nation they visit rather than any other place.

Spain’s property market to attract massive investments from pensioners.

Spain’s property market to attract massive investments from pensioners.

As per the data obtained, it is indicative that majority of the wealth is held among people above 50 and hence, there is a strong speculation that a majority of their investments might be in the Spanish property markets.

Older people looking for a better quality of life are

moving to The Costa del Sol

A travel agency named Silver TravelAdvisor, which is known for conducting holidays among people aged 50 and above, stated that 80% of the private wealth of UK was summed up by people aged over 50 and they are exploring places like Iberia and Spain, which they consider to be a sound investment for their wealth.

Among the Brit expats, 14% of them are located in Spain and the expat portal of Brits known as the Brits Abroad has indicated that the property market of Spain might flood with investments, as majority of the people will be retiring soon and might strongly consider investing in Spain.

People retiring soon are rich on funds and will generally have the liberty to explore the world. However, when it comes to the place where they want to reside from then, Spain is generally the first choice, as per the Director of Kyero, Martin Dell.

Spain offers a variety of advantages, such as the excellent weather, delicious wine, healthy cuisines, beautiful golf courses and it is also rich on the cultural history. It also has sprawling architecture spread all over and has a lot to explore for retired people. The cost of living is also moderate, and people who have a decent affordability consider this to be the best place for retirement.

Despite the relative strength between pound and euro, pensioners from Britain are getting more for their money. As per the building society of UK, Nationwide, the cost of owning a house in Britain on an average is £200,251, equivalent to €255,000, making British to invest more in Spain.

Although there is no clarity about the EU referendum, the Brits are still eyeing on the property markets of Spain owing to the affordability it has to offer and the relatively lower living costs. Even today, Costa del Sol is the cheapest holiday destination in Europe, making it a tourist haven too.

Costa del Sol is now attracting real estate workers to invest more, so that they can cash in on the benefits once the EU debate has been cleared out.

A more promising career awaits you when you stay abroad!

A more promising career awaits you when you stay abroad!

The opportunities abroad are endless and make you

better equipped than people that have never lived abroad.

Expats get a better opportunity and experience when they stay abroad and it also ensures that the employment progression increases greatly.

As per a study conducted by the British Council, it has been proven that successful expats owe their success greatly to the fact that they have lived abroad and this has helped them to gain confidence and adaptability towards new situations, making them more dynamic.

With globalization happening at a major pace, people are living across different countries and are working, thereby having a confluence of cultures. To sustain in such environments, they will need a certain skill set, which is usually obtained when they are in new places.

To attain this type of skill set, the best possible way is to start residing in a country like Spain that is not your native country. You can look for employment opportunities in different countries, check if universities offer exchange programs or by solely shifting to a new country altogether. This will give you the required atmosphere which will sharpen your social skills to a great extent and will also offer you an experience which you would not be familiar about if you reside in your native country.

Based on the survey conducted by The British Council on the residents of UK, a few were expats, natives and immigrants from various places and the end result indicated that over 80% of the total people who had lived abroad had a greater level of confidence while they had to deal with a new situation and with people who had not lived abroad previously, the confidence level stood at 70%.

People who resided abroad had a 26% of them who were confident in conversing in a foreign language while the local residents had only 10% of them who could talk confidently.

Nearly 50% of the people who had resided abroad had indicated that their experience of staying in a foreign country helped them in several skills such as innovation, development, research and product improvement as it got them out of their comfort zone, due to which they were able to perform better and had improved confidence.

Even when people who had international exposure applied for jobs, there was a 60% significance given to expats and people who have stayed abroad. Due to this, the salaries offered to them are also higher and hence, their career progress is also great.

With the study, The British Council also recommended that more emphasis should be laid within UK for its people to spend more time either working or studying abroad in Spain, due to which they will have benefits in their career.

Spanish Property Prices up 29% in April

Spanish Property Prices up 29% in April

The Spanish property market is continuing to improve despite the current political problems affecting Spain. The latest figures published Thursday by the Spanish central statistics unit would seem to confirm that the Spanish political situation isn’t affecting the real estate market at all. A total of 35,199 sales were made in April, a 29% rise over April of last year.

Property prices in Spain and the Costa del Sol

have continued to rise.

This total is the number of transactions that were registered in April and as such includes property sales that were finalised in previous months. Even if this is the case it can still be assumed that the data reflects the confidence in the real estate sector after the general election of last year ended with no clear winner. This is also the single highest figure from one month in over five years, except for a rush to finish sales before changes to tax concessions were introduced in 2012. These sales were then reflected in the sales figures for January and February in 2013.

Another encouraging statistic is that the year-to-date sales for the first four months of 2016 show that 134,312 properties have changed hands so far this year, a rise of 13.8% over this period last year. The current twelve month running total stands at 370,793, a rise of 12.7% compared to the end of April 2015.

This rise was felt in all 17 of the Spanish regions. Some performed better than others with a rise of 61.7% seen in the Balerics, a 51.6% rise seen in Galicia, a 46.6% rise in Comunidad Valencia and a 44.2% rise in Murcia. The areas that saw the most overall transactions were the Comunidad Valencia with 138 and the Balerics with 129. Figures of over 100 were also seen in Madrid, La Rioja and significantly in Andalucía. The national average came in at 96 sales per 100,000 people.

Rise in Spanish Property Prices Expected to Increase Until 2025

Rise in Spanish Property Prices Expected to Increase Until 2025

Property prices in Spain will continue to rise which is

great news for the Costa del sol

The slump in the Spanish property market lasted a good seven years but things are on the up now, with one market analysis suggesting that prices are set to continue increasing steadily for the next nine years until Spain reaches the peak prices of 2007 once more.

Or so José Luis Suárez, a financial management professor with the IESE business school, claims. He gave a now-widely-quoted symposium over the weekend in which he claimed that Spain will need to build 100,000 new homes each year until 2020, with the demand increasing for the next five years to 140,000.

There are a number of reasons people should be optimistic about the health of the property sector in Spain. While a number of encouraging reports have come out this is by far the most encouraging one. It was between 2007 and 2014 that the demand for property took a sharp downturn with only 75,000 homes built a year, down significantly from the high of 800,000 in 2006. Suárez believes that Spain is headed for a slow but steady recovery now after construction reached an all time low of 50,000 in 2015.

Madrid and the Costa del Sol is currently where the highest demand for new property is. Roughly 25,000 homes are constructed there each year.

Suárez had something to say about the average price per square metre of residential property too. He made the point that the annual rises seen leading up to 2007 were followed by bludgeoning cuts. The price per square metre fell from 2,062 euros in 2007 to around 1,400 euros in 2014. He expects that it will be 2025 when we see the peak price from 2007 once more. It is worth noting however that this figure doesn’t take inflation into account. It’s not an accurate representation of the “real” value.

It his figures prove accurate though it means that Spanish property can expect an appreciation of around 40% in nine years, making investing in Spanish property a smart choice. You should keep in mind that market trends change all the time and are also different from area to area.