2017 Sees Nine-Year High in Spanish Property Sales

Southern Spain is truly back.. 

2017 Sees Nine-Year High in Spanish Property Sales

The National Institute of Statistics in Spain (INE) has published the latest provisional residential property sales figures for 2017 which show last year saw a nine-year high for total property transactions. 

This means that 2017 has become the most significant year for the Spanish property market since 2008, which was when the bubble burst and the crash began, leaving the real estate industry in a state that it has taken years to recover from.

Signs have been suggesting that the property market in Spain has been recovering since 2013, but this latest data marks the first time that the market has reached pre-crash conditions. Property sales figures increased across all 17 autonomous regions of Spain, and the 14.6% nationwide increase over 2016 sales figures left the total figure at 464,423 homes sold in 2017. 

This is in stark contrast to the 312,000 homes changing hands in Spain during 2012, which was when sales started bottoming out at the height of the recession. 2017 ended on a positive note as well, as the 32,211 transactions recorded for last December was an increase of 9.2% over December of 2016. It’s also around twice the notary data published recently that estimated sales would increase 4.5% in December. 

The fastest-growing region of Spain last year was Castilla-La Mancha, which saw an impressive increase in property sales of 24.7% compared to 2016. This is an area that doesn’t usually bring in foreign buyers, suggesting that a large part of the uptick in the Spanish real estate sector is caused by domestic recovery. 

Foreign buyers still remain an important part of Spanish real estate though, accounting for around 15% of home buying activity in 2017. Of this, Brits were responsible for around a fifth of all sales to foreign investors.

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.

Spain continues is recovery and smashes all records yet again.

May Sees 9-Year High in Spanish Home Sales

The recovery of the Spanish property market has carried over to the summer, as the latest official data from the National Statistics Institute shows home sales reached a nine-year high in the month of May.

It was the summer of 2008 nine years ago; back when people began to notice the signs of an impending financial crisis. Even so, the moods were still high, if a little lower than during the summer of 2007.

Since then however, the property sector has been ravaged by a Spanish double-dip recession, an EU crisis, and a global credit crunch. It took a long time for recovery to begin, with things only looking up in 2013.

Despite the delay, the past 18 months have been very positive overall, and the latest data from the INE is the best seen for some time.

The official figures show that 44,782 homes were registered as sold in May this year; the highest monthly figure seen since back in September 2008, and a whopping increase on May from last year of 22.9%.

This is hardly an isolated incident either. When combined, the first five months saw a total of 191,537 properties change hands in Spain; an 11.8% increase on the first five months of 2016.

To offer a larger view, data from the INE also shows that, for the 12 months leading to the end of May 2017, home sales transactions were around 425,000; an incredibly encouraging 11.9% annual increase.

There are always regional imbalances when it comes to the number of transactions, but the data showed that sales were up in 16 out of 17 of the Spanish autonomous regions over last year. The Balearics and Castille-La Mancha in particular had strong sales; with increases of over 35%.

Other recent data from the INE shows that property pricesincreased by an average of 5.3% nationwide.

Malaga Airport Sees Record-Breaking May

Malaga Airport Sees Record-Breaking May

Malaga airport continues to break all records

confirming the areas popularity

Records were broken at Malaga airport in May 2017, as an unprecedented 1.8 million passengers passed through the doors of the airport; representing an increase 11.2% over May of last year. This is 200,000 more than the number of people passing through the airport in June from last year – which saw 1.6 million passengers – and 100,000 more than from September 2016.

Statistics from the Airports and Air Navigation Authority of Spain (AENA) show that Malaga airport saw the most growth out of any Spanish airport, seeing twice as much growth in May as the terminals in Barcelona and Madrid.

The UK remained top of the league for country of origin of passengers, with some 620,922 British passengers moving through theMalaga-Costa del Sol airport – an increase of 10.2% over the last year. Domestic travellers were second, with German travellers coming in third (168,652) and then the Netherlands (117,971).

The great figures from May bring the country to a total of 6,487,745 passengers moving through Malaga airport across 48,922 flights during the first five months of 2017; equating to a 16% increase in operations and a 15.6% increase in passengers.

The Costa del sol continues to break all records with tourism 

Malaga Sees Steady Flow of Cruise Ships

Malaga Sees Steady Flow of Cruise Ships

Malaga has become a hub for cruise ships

Malaga has always been a mainstay on the itineraries of many of the most prestigious Transatlantic liners in the world. The latest data from the Puertos del Estado Port Authority in Spain shows that 366,679 cruise ship passengers entered the Malaga port in the first ten months of 2016; representing a 10.2% increase over this same period in 2015 and three times larger than the national average increase of 3.7%.

This increase pushes the Costa del Sol capital into fifth place behind Barcelona (an increase of 8.7% and 2.4 million passengers); the Balearics (a 5.8% and 1.7 million passengers); Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (a 10.7% increase and 795,845 passengers); and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (down 2.5% with 613,015 passengers).

The other two port authorities in Spain that registered a record number of passengers on cruise ships – Cádiz and Valencia – came in sixth and seventh respectively; welcome 342,233 passengers (down 6.1%) and 337,166 (down just 0.03%).

The provincial daily newspaper Diario Sur is also reporting that Malaga will welcome cruise ships 296 different times in 2017, for a total of over 500,000 tourists expected to arrive throughout the year. This represents a very sizable increase of 17% and 13% over 2016.

September Sees 12% More Brits Visit Spain

September Sees 12% More Brits Visit Spain

The Costa del Sol has broken all records yet again

Spain is still going through one of the best years fortourism ever and the latest data from the Tourism Ministry shows the good year continues on because September saw 12% more British people than September of last year.

According to the data some 2 million Brits came to Spain in September; making for a grand total of 14.4 million Brits out of 60.3 million tourists across the whole year.

Spain saw a total of 7.9 million tourists in September, which was an increase of just over 10% over 2015. During the three-month period of July to September there was a total of 27.6 million visitors to Spain, an increase of the 25 million from 2015.

The Tourism Ministry predicts that Spain will see 74 million tourists by the end of the year, which would be a new record. Almost everyone is welcoming this news from hoteliers and bar owners to anyone watching the economy.

There are plenty of resorts that have the ability to handle these visitor numbers, there are also places such as Barcelona and Majorca that are already stretched to their limits.

The good news is that there is still room in the Costa del Sol for more hotels, resorts, and anything else visitors could want without disrupting the balance that makes buying property in the Costa del Sol and the surrounding areas uch a favourite with tourists.

Tour operator Exceltur undertook their own research that suggests that the number of tourists who become “officially registered” by booking at a hotel has gone up by 2% over the past two years. During these two years there has been an increase of 75% in private rentals.

Spanish Cabinet Reshuffle Sees Gibraltar Agitator Replaced as Foreign Minister

Spanish Cabinet Reshuffle Sees Gibraltar Agitator Replaced as Foreign Minister

The cabinet of Mariano Rajoy has undergone a bit of a reshuffle and it’s seen the quiet removal of one of the biggest thorns in the side of Gibraltar.

Everyone is glad José Manual García-Margallo has been replaced

Spain’s newest government are keen to make their mark on Spanish politics as soon as possible. Rajoy’s decision to replace José Manual García-Margallo with a career diplomat is reassuring some people that Spain should no longer be getting into spats over The Rock.

García-Margallo spent many years vocalising his belief that Gibraltar should become Spanish territory and he was always eager to make the relationship between Spain and Britain a little worse.

Rajoy’s new cabinet isn’t as powerful as his old one and now he only has a minority conservative grip on the reins of Parliament. As such Prime Minister Rajoy appears to be taking all the chances he can get to limit any potential fights with his opponents on the left.

Alfonso Dastis is the man who will replace García-Margallo as Foreign Minister. Dastis has been a long-standing representative of Spain in the European Parliament of Brussels and is considered to be sensible and reasoned.

There was good news for the markets as Luis de Guindos was kept on as Economic Minister. De Guindos was able to keep the economy as steady as possible and help it recover during some of the toughest economic times the country has faced since Franco.

De Guindos spearheaded a mass labour reform as the country was going through a double-dip recession and has been vital to keeping a low cost of living and the economic recovery happening. He’s one of the main reasons that it recovered much faster than anyone could predict.

A parliamentary spokesman for the Popular Party said that they decided continuity was the right approach for the economic team and that they would keep the team that saw Spain reverse the economic situation of five years ago.

There are six new ministers in Rajoy’s new cabinet. The interior and defence roles have gone to new people alongside the foreign role. The new Interior Minister is Juan Ignacio Zoido. Zoido is the former mayor of Seville and he will be replacing Jorge Fernández Diaz, while Maria Dolores de Cospedal is the new Defence Minister, following her role as the Secretary General of the PP.

August Sees 20% in Spanish Home Sales

August Sees 20% in Spanish Home Sales

While it’s true that monthly home sales for buying property in the Costa del Sol and Spain are still quite low compared to the highs of 2006-2007 the figures for this year were still the highest in six years.

Property sales continue on the uptrend

August 2016 is going to be a month that saw many different records smashed in Spain. For a start the country welcomed record numbers of tourists and a record amount of consumer spending, including record numbers of overnight hotel stays and flights to and from Spain.

All of these records being broken was bound to reflect positively on the property market and, if the data from the Office of National Statistics (INE) is to be believed then it definitely did. The latest figures show that August saw 20.3% more homes sold compared to August of last year.

All in all there were 35,501 homes sold in August, which is the most homes sold since 2010. They also showed that the trend of increased property sales is continuing on and shows no signs of slowing down.

In terms of overall property sales for the year so far Spain has seen some 276,000 homes sold nationwide in the first eight months of 2016. This is a 14.8% increase compared to the first eight months of last year.

In terms of the past 12 months Spain has seen 391,000properties change hands; an increase of 13.3%. It’s expected that this trend should continue for at least five more years as the economic recovery of the country continues.

The GDP of Spain is set to grow by about 3%, mostly due to the domestic demand in the real estate sector. There has also been strong foreign demand in the property sector, including a rise in British demand during the year.

This doesn’t mean one can neglect the market contributions of the French, German and Scandinavian buyers though. There are also more Chinese buyers than before as Spain continues to draw the attention of everyone all over the world.

Spain Sees First Heatwave with Temperatures Reaching 42ºC

Spain Sees First Heatwave with Temperatures Reaching 42ºC

The summer has been sizzling for some time in the Costa del sol 

With temperatures getting pretty high inside the country you may want to head out to the beach in Spain and places like the Costa del Sol.

There used to be a saying that you would know when someone had an iPhone because they would tell you. While the phrase doesn’t quite work anymore, as many people have iPhones and have stopped bragging about it, there are some alterations that still hold true. Such as knowing it’s hot in Britain because every single brit will delight in telling you about it. Every. Single. One of them.

If you’ve been living under a rock then no doubt you know that the UK has seen a bit of a heatwave in the past week or so with temperatures reaching, and sometimes going above, 30 ºC and prompting everyone to show off how red they’re getting or updating everyone on how they’re enjoying an ice cream in the park. Don’t forget all the people complaining about the weather and how they just aren’t cut out for it.

The Brits are kind of cute when it comes to this. They never get sunshine and warmth to this degree and even though millions of them head out to Spain for weather just like this they get really confused when it happens at home rather than abroad.

Speaking of Spain you should spare a thought or two for the Spanish who are having to endure heatwaves of their own. The Spanish weather agency Aemet is reporting that temperatures in Spain could reach as high as 42 ºC this week. It’s not incredibly rare but it’s definitely not common for mid-July.

This may be the time of year when records are broken but any amount of time where temperatures go above 40 ºC could be classed as a heatwave, even for a naturally sunny country like Spain.

There are 38 Spanish provinces that found themselves in high alert for the temperatures, with 13 of them also being classed as “high risk”. High risk means that the heat could be so bad it can damage health, particularly for the old and infirm. All the dry air also increases the chances of forest fires starting and it would hardly be the first time a forest fire was started by a heatwave.