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| Costa del Sol property sales continue steadily |
This is exactly what happened in Spain. The latest data from
the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) shows that property sales
during October 2016 were 6.5% higher than October 2015; making October the
ninth consecutive month that property sales were higher than the same month the
previous year.
The only month to buck the trend was January, where there
was no difference between 2015 and 2016. Even so the year-to-date sales show
that property sales have increased 13.9% over last year, with an excess of
340,000 properties bought and sold.
October alone saw 29,369 of these sales, adding to the
picture of the past 12 months showing a 12% increase over the last 12 month
period between October 2014 and 2015. The data from the INE shows 397,000Spanish properties changed hands in the past year, which is higher than it has been in
over five years.
From a regional standpoint the growth was driven by the
usual suspects including Andalucía, the Balearics, and the Communidad Valencia
making up the bulk of these sales. An interesting point is that the remote
region of Asturias was where the highest percentage increase was seen with an
increase of 21% in home sales between October 2015 and October 2016.
Brits are still a big part of the market, making up 28% of
the second-home sales in the Costa del Sol during the third quarter of 2016,
according to data obtained by the Association of Spanish Land Registrars,
although demand was down a little from the second quarter following the drop in
the pound.
Even so the British buyer is still the largest nationality
but there is an increase in demand from German, Swedish, Belgian and French
buyers according to the data.
