Confidence in Spanish property market soars

On the up: confidence is soaring as Spanish property prices begin to rise.

A survey of leading Spanish- and English-speaking real estate agents in Spain has found that professional confidence in the industry has soared in the past year.

The Spanish Property Market Confidence Index from Kyero has found that 71% of real estate agents working within the Spanish property sector feel more confident at this point in the year than they did last year…

The survey also found that 30% of English-speaking agents believe that the current strength of the pound sterling is one of the main reasons for the current buoyancy of the Spanish market, with more and more Brits investing in property in Spain.

For Spanish-speaking agents, the majority believe that the country’s own improving economy, coupled with a more savvy, professional approach to marketing, is helping confidence in the industry grow.

According to more than half of all agents surveyed, sales have increased notably in the first quarter of the year compared to 2014, while a further 31% said that they remained at around the same levels as at the beginning of last year. Very few – less than 10% – had noticed a drop in sales, said the survey.

Among the English-speaking agents, the opinion of 49% of them is that property prices across Spain have, on the whole, risen – which means that the industry is split almost 50/50 when it comes to determining whether Spanish property prices are rising nationwide. For the Costa del Sol, however, statistics show that property prices have risen on average ever-so-slightly since 2014.

The latest data published by the Property Registrars has revealed that average housing values across Spain increased 2.65% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015.

Overseas buyer numbers are up, found the survey, confirming data from previous reports and findings that show buyers from Britain, Germany and France have begun snapping-up Spanish property at the fastest rates since 2007. Overall, 12.22% of transactions recorded in Spain in the first quarter were sold to foreign buyers – an increase of 8.95 per cent. Of that total, Brits accounted for 17.7% of all transactions, with the French buying 10.19 per cent and Germans 7.7 per cent.

The index revealed that there were 90,534 property transactions recorded overall in Spain between January and March, an increase of nine per cent on the same period in 2014. For Málaga province, which includes the Costa del Sol, confidence is rated as above average, while the Almería and Murcia regions are, according to the survey, enjoying a moment of strong confidence.