Over three-quarters of Spanish property sold to Brits last year was resale homes

Second-hand homes represented 76% of all properties bought by Brits in Spain last year.

Although 2016 is only in its fledgling months, three distinct trends – hinted at towards the end of 2015 – have already begun to emerge.

The first and most encouraging is the undeniable recovery of the Spanish property market, with both prices and the number of confirmed transactions on a steady trajectory upwards…

The second notable trend has been the dominance of the resale property market over the new build sector, with second-hand homes changing hands at a rate ten times faster than new homes. The third trend, and one inextricably linked to the first two, is the return to the prominence of the British buyer.

Brits accounted for one in five of all Spanish homes sold to foreigners in 2015, and new data released by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works has revealed that resale homes account for 76% of all properties bought by British nationals in Spain.

“There was a time when British buyers flocked to new build developments in Spain,” said director of Ideal Homes International Chris White. “The financial turbulence of the past decade has had an interesting impact on British property purchases in Spain. Confidence is back and the market is growing at a healthy pace, but the type of property that buyers are seeking has definitely shifted.”

The government data shows that there is still solid interest in new build properties from Scandinavian and Belgian buyers, but most nationalities – like the Brits – are interested in Spain’s robust resale market. In total, 69,196 homes were sold to foreign buyers in 2015, which represented a 13% increase on 2014.

For Brits, the driving force behind a Spanish property purchase has shifted a little since a decade ago. Today, most British buyers are interested in a second holiday home in the Spanish sunshine, while a smaller number are seeking a second income from that property in terms of holiday lets.

This trend has exerted downward pressure on Spanish rents, which have fallen month-by-month for 35 months in a row, the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) has found.