Brits help Spain home sales and flight bookings reach nine-year high

The Brits are coming this Easter, and many will stick around to snap up a property, too

For many, 2005 may not seem like all that long ago. But if you were to somehow transport yourself back to those pre-recession days there are a few things that are sure to stick out like a sore thumb: phones with buttons (indeed, phones as phones, rather than portable computers), no Facebook, a YouTube with approximately five videos on it, and a Liverpool FC mere weeks away from an unexpected triumph. How things have, erm, changed.

But nine years later things most certainly look different. Spain’s previously impervious property market has since been shaken down for its last penny and left to splutter in the dust, only recently rising gingerly to its feet. And the benevolent good Samaritan lending a helping, steadying hand? Why, the Brits…British buyers have been behind a second wave in Spanish property investment, accounting for 15.1 per cent of all foreign property sales in 2013. In total, overseas investors bought one in ten houses up for sale last year, according to statistics released this month by Spain’s Institute of National Statistics.

Property sales to overseas homeowners were up by 16 per cent last year when compared to 2012, with foreigners purchasing €6.45 billion worth of Spanish real estate – reaching levels not seen for nine years. Buoyed by an average property price contraction of 7.8 per cent last year, foreign buyers have had their heads turned by the opportunities that exist in the Spanish property market.

The same cannot be said for Spanish nationals, however, with recent data showing that sales of new homes have fallen by almost 37 per cent in the past year in the wake of an expiration of a government-backed tax incentive to encourage Spaniards to purchase new build properties.

However, overseas interest in Spain remains as strong as ever, with the Spanish Airport Agency (AENA) this week revealing that the number of flight bookings into the country for Easter this year is up by 14.4 per cent compared to 2013.

The AENA expect 7.7 million air passengers to travel through Spanish airports this week, with Easter Sunday expected to be the busiest day of the year so far. As with property, it is the Brits leading the charge, with millions expected to descend on Málaga airport on the Costa del Sol, as well as the airports serving the Canary Islands and the Balearics.