After Paris, London and New York, Chinese investors head to Spain

Spain’s cultural attractions are beginning to turn Chinese heads, as is the country’s recovering property market.

Some of the world’s wealthiest real estate investors hail from China, a land where the rich are astoundingly rich and the poor are, well, dirt poor. A growing middle class aside, China’s wealth divide has widened in recent years, prompting many of the country’s tycoons to seek safer havens for their money than China itself…

First up was property in Paris back in the 1980s. Elegant and a surefire winner in terms of return, a home near the Champs Elysees was always going to turn Chinese heads. As relations between China and the US thawed in the ‘90s, many rich Chinese investors snapped up the hottest real estate in Manhattan, before turning their sights to London’s priciest postcodes after the millennium.

But now, it seems, it is Spain’s turn to welcome the riches of China’s wealthiest, according to international property website for Chinese buyers, Juwai.com.

“The Chinese investor is looking farther afield,” said co-CEO of Juwai, Andrew Taylor. “They are looking at where the next growth potential will come from. Over the past year, Spain has obtained the greatest number of Chinese buyers.”

While Brits make up the largest proportion of foreign investors in Spanish property, the Chinese are the fastest-growing group, overtaking the Russians to become the newest minted kids on the block.

A recent CBRE report revealed that investment in real estate by Chinese individuals rose to $52 billion globally in 2014 – up from just $12 billion in 2009. This figure is solely for real estate investment in markets other than China, and is an astounding increase that experts believe is only going to get bigger as the country’s economy expands.

The recovering strength of Spanish property, allied to the recent introduction of the ‘Golden Visa’ that enables non-EU citizens who invest more than €500,000 in the country the chance to gain residency in Spain – a tempting carrot that can offer Chinese investors access to EU healthcare, education and the Schengen travel agreement – has made investing in Spain an attractive option for the Chinese.

Capital Economics, a financial analyst group, reported last week that income from rental property in Spain is set to increase by 21% between 2015 and 2019, which is way above the European average of 13%. Furthermore, Spain’s cultural attractions and its cuisines and world-renowned wine are beginning to find a receptive audience in China, meaning that more and more consumers are choosing to visit Spain when in Europe rather than the traditional destinations of Paris and London.