Spain Reduces Amount of Unsold Homes by 300,000

Spain Reduces Amount of Unsold Homes by 300,000

The Costa del Sol continues its recovery

While there are some areas of Spain that are having trouble attracting buyers, some areas of the country remain as popular as ever; such as the Costa del Sol. Around half of the unsold properties that were constructed before the crash of 2008 have now been sold according to the latest data from the Caixa Bank Group.

The analysis looked at the bulk of homes that were long thought to be unsellable due to their location, lack of infrastructure, and low demand. It showed that of the 650,000 properties that were on the market in 2009, only 388,000 were still unsold by the end of 2016.

This was representative of a drop of 20% in just one year, with similar results expected in 2017. Caixa are predicting that there will be less than 315,000 of these properties on the market by the end of 2017.

Some areas, such as Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol, are already running out of such unsellable properties. The areas that still have the most amount of these homes including La Rioja, Castille-La Mancha, and Valencia; the inland areas that don’t have as much demand.

To contrast this the problem doesn’t really exist in areas such as the Canaries and the Balearics, thanks in part to the popularity of the regions and the strict building controls.

The bank did further analysis that suggested property transactions would increase 12% in 2017; an increase on the 450,000 home sales recorded in 2016.

Caixa are also expecting that the average property price will increase 4.3% in 2017. Also on the increase is the number of foreign buyers, but it’s expected that British buyers will be a less dominant force with sales spread out between British, German, French and Scandinavian buyers.

It’s also expected the country, in particular Barcelona and the Costa del Sol, will see an increase in demand from Chinese, American and Russian investors.