Spanish Property Expert Believes Brexit may Affect British Demand for Spanish Property

Spanish Property Expert Believes Brexit may Affect British Demand for Spanish Property

The effects of Brexit are still unknown but could effect prices

It’s been suggested that the weakened pound and the general uncertainty following the British exit from the European Union is likely to undermine the British demand for Spanish properties.

This could be quite concerning given the strong British demand since 2013. Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight is even suggesting that this trend could now go in the opposite direction.

Mr Stucklin believes that the negative impact will mostly hit the areas with a high British demand such as Alicante and Malaga, along with the Balearics, the Canaries, and Murcia. He says that the Brexit vote will mean that there are just less British buyers overall.

One of the reasons that British demand for Spanish property is driven by how well the pound is performing. When the pound goes up against the euro then British demand rises within two quarters. The pound has been wakened following the Brexit however so it’s almost assured that the demand will be reduced as a result.

Stucklin suggested that this drop in demand won’t just come from British vendors either. He believes demand will be down overall and that experts may need to re-evaluate their price expectations.

He also believes that less Brits will move to Spain until deals are made and this will take two years at the least. British expats in Spain are now unsure where things are going to end up right now. It could take years for all the dust to settle and it’s likely more expats will head back home rather than come into Spain.

One group of people who should be unaffected are British people with Spanish holiday homes who don’t plan on selling them. The biggest worry for them is how the UK will look when everything is over.

The latest figures from the Notaires registrar do confirm that a strong pound and Spanish property prices were behind the rise in British demand last year. Property buyers from the UK made up the largest group of buyers with 21% of foreign buyers coming from Britain; a rise of 42% over the previous year.

The British are truly the major players in the foreign buyer market in areas like Alicante on the Costa Blanca and Malaga on the Costa del Sol.

At the same time it’s also true that Spanish property prices will likely go down following the fall of the pound. It means that the exchange market is easier on those changing their pounds into euros. It’s still true that British pensioners looking to move to Spain will find themselves with less money now though.