Spanish Property Sees Foreign Investment Double in One Year

Spain continues to be a fantastic place to buy property 

The latest data from real estate investment analysts JLL shows that the Spanish property market welcomed a total of €888 million from foreign investments during the first half of the year – over double the amount of investment in the same period of time in 2016.

The analysts found British, French, German, Swedish, and Russian buyers are still the largest sources of foreign investment in Spanish property, accounting for a total of 13.2% of properties purchased in Spain last year. This represented the largest amount of foreign buyers entering the Spanish market in over a decade, with all signs indicating 2017 will see another record set for foreign ownership.

Based on the figures from last year, Brits were responsiblefor 19% of the property bought by foreigners, once again taking the lead as the most prominent foreign nationality.

Eight percent of foreign buyers came from France, while 7.6% were German and 6.7% were Swedish.

A total of 53,000 properties in Spain were sold to foreigners in 2016, meaning that if current trends of foreign interest continues for the rest of 2017, there could be close to 100,000 Spanish properties sold to foreign buyers by the end of the year.

The Spanish property market is being boosted by more than just foreign interest. Domestic demand has increased thanks to the economic recovery and the growth of the job market, which has compelled young Spaniards to take their first steps on the property ladder; enticed by affordable property prices and favourable mortgages across the country.

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Brits are still buying property regardless of Brexit uncertainty

Brits have always been the largest single group of foreign buyers of Spanish property. Given that around one-fifth of all Spanish properties sold to non-Spaniards go to Brits, it can be misleading to try and compare other nationalities to British buyers on a like-for-like basis.

That is why the Spanish property portal Kyero has decided to take a different approach across recent months by grouping “Europeans” into a single entity. The results of doing so have been eye-opening.

When Europeans are classed into a single group like this, the data shows that 60% of all inquiries on Spanish property Kyero receives come from Europeans, with the growth since last summer reaching double digits.

The portal has recorded an increase of 25% in leads and enquiries year-on-year (based on the data from February), but the highest spike in growth has come from Europeans.

One interesting statistic is that Spanish property enquiries from British buyers has risen 36% over last February, but sales have only increased by just 1.5% - an anomaly that would appear to be fuelled by Brits taking more of a “wait and see” approach to Spanish property until the issue of the Brexit is sorted. There is certainly a lot of demand for Spanish property from Brits, but they are holding out on actually making the purchases until Article 50 is finished.

This isn’t the case with the Germans, where both interest and sales have increased by over 20% over the past year. Despite Germany facing a general election in 2017, the politics in the country have been stable for a long time, which is reflected by the willingness of the population to purchase overseas property.

Kyero analyst Richard Spiegal understands that Brits are taking a wait and see approach, but is still convinced that would-be buyers will only be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit. Spiegal said that the majority of British buyers would just be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit, feeling that it isn’t likely going to change access to travel, the availability, and property rights.

Brits are still interested in buying, but are just in a holding pattern while waiting to see how the Brexit negotiations will unfold. Even though the British are going through a temporary pause for now, the Spanish property market is still on the rise. This is just a further testament to the appeal of the country to people from around the rest of Europe, and indeed the world.

Spanish Property Prices Increase at Double the Eurozone Average

Spanish Property Prices Increase at Double the Eurozone Average

Spanish property for sale gives investors a whole lot for their money and the Spanish market as a whole is becoming more stable and attractive each day.

Regardless of Brexit the future is bright the future is Spain

Now the latest data from EU statistics agency Eurostat has shown that property prices across all of the Eurozone have increased on average by around 3% in the last 12 months. Spanish property prices, however, have risen by over double that.

The data from Eurostat shows that the average value of Spanish homes has increased by 6.3% in the year up to the end of the first quarter of 2016. This increase is higher than the increase in almost every other country in the Eurozone.

The Eurostat data would also confirm that property prices have increased now for 8 quarters in a row, with this latest spike of 6.3% being the sharpest rise since the third quarter of 2007. It’s also the biggest average property price increase since 2008 for the entirety of the Eurozone.

The price of property in Spain is still around 32% less than it was during 2008 according to the data. So even though property prices are on the rise, and have been for two years, asking prices are still much lower than they were at the peak of eight years ago.

Many experts are happy with how things look which would suggest that the market is going to slowly correct itself and return to its once former glory through both foreign and domestic demand, banks being sensible about lending, and support from the recovering Spanish economy.

Staying in Eurozone it was Austria who saw the largest increase in property prices in the same amount of time. Property in Austria rose by an average of 13.4% while prices were down 1.2% in Italy and Cyprus.