Costa del Sol property sales to foreigners up 45 per cent say General Council of Notaries

José Prado and Elías Bendodo at the Málaga presentation

Earlier this month, the president of the Provincial Association of Constructors and Developers of Málaga, José Prado, and the president of the Diputación de Málaga, Elías Bendodo, presented the latest data regarding the number of properties on the Costa del Sol purchased by foreigners, which continues to show substantial growth this year…

Produced by Spain’s General Council of Notaries, these figures demonstrate that during the first half of this year, 4,739 properties were sold to non-residents in the province of Málaga – a 45 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2013 – and the highest figure since the 3,506 transactions recorded in the first six months of 2007, prior to the crisis kicking in.

By nationality, Britons led the field with 1,018 transactions, representing 21.5 per cent of all foreigners buying property in Málaga province. Next came Swedes (with 570 and 12 per cent); Belgians (377 and 8 per cent); and Russians (332 and 7 per cent), although in the case of the latter, economic sanctions and the Ukraine situation have seen figures tailing off somewhat in the second half of the year.

“We can talk of a real recovery now,” said Bendodo, who went on to point out that after Alicante, Málaga is the Spanish province with the highest number of foreign property purchasers. Prado, meanwhile, forecasts a further increase of 20 per cent before the end of the year.