Foreign investment in Spanish property doubles in one year

Affordable, good quality Spanish property has long attracted foreign buyers, and new data shows that their number is rising.

New data from real estate investment analysts JLL has revealed that foreign investment into Spain’s property market totalled €888 million in the first half of the year – more than double the amount spent over the same period in 2016…

The analysis finds that British, German, French, Swedish and Russian buyers remain the most dominant group of non-Spanish purchaser of property, accounting for 13.2 % of all properties bought in Spain last year. This represented the highest proportion of foreign buyers into the Spanish market for more than a decade, and it would seem that 2017 will register another record on foreign ownership.

Based on last year’s figures, Brits accounted for 19 % of the foreign-bought property, and are once again out in front as the most prominent nationality in the transaction figures.

French buyers accounted for eight per cent of all non-Spanish transactions, JLL found, ahead of German buyers (7.6 %) and Swedish buyers (6.7 %).

In total, 53,500 properties were sold to non-Spaniards in 2016, meaning that if the current pace of interest by foreigners continues in 2017, the year could end with close to 100,000 Spanish properties being snapped up by foreign investors.

And it is not just foreigners who are boosting the Spanish property market. Domestic demand is increasingly strong thanks to the country’s recovering economy and growing jobs market, which is compelling younger Spaniards to get their foot on to the property market – attracted by favourable mortgages and affordable property right across the country.