Spanish property back on the radar of foreign investors

New figures show that the number of overseas investors buying property in Spain increased by 20 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2014, as the country’s slowly recovering economy starts to tempt foreign buyers back into the market.

And it is British buyers who are continuing to lead the way when it comes to purchasing an Iberian hideaway, the figures show. British purchasers currently make up 18.06 per cent of all foreigners buying a home in the country, making Britain the largest source country of overseas buyers of Spanish property, ahead of France (10.48 per cent), Russia (7.5 per cent), Germany (6.45 per cent) and Belgium (6.19 per cent).

The number of properties acquired by non-European purchasers has also been rising in recent years, with Chinese (3.95 per cent), Moroccan (2.34 per cent) and Algerian buyers (1.96 per cent) increasing the most.

In terms of the regions when most overseas interest tends to be centred, Madrid (up 30.4 per cent), Extremadura (up 25.7 per cent) and Navarra (up 19.3 per cent) have recorded the biggest increase in sales. The highest number of home sales per 100,000 residents has been seen in Valencia followed by the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.

Nationally, property prices started to recover slowly last year following the spectacular collapse of the country’s property market following the global financial crisis on 2008. In first 10 months of 2014, prices increased by an average of 1 per cent and were 2 per cent higher than they had been by the end of 2012.

Article published 5th January 2014