Notary data puts Spanish property price increase at 5.67% in 2016

Home values in Spain have been rising steadily since 2014, and last year increased by around 5.6%.

Scour the internet for long enough and you are sure to come across a headline, opinion or statistic that chimes with any preconceived notion or worldview that you may hold.

The same can ring true for the Spanish property market…

Some media outlets remain eager to paint a picture of grim desperation, and even cite dubious sources that claim property prices in Spain are tumbling at an alarming rate.

Well, these stories can be easily debunked, not least because all of the country’s most respected analysts and economists can point to reliable data that shows how property prices have increased steadily in most parts of the country since bottoming out in 2014.

From Deutsche Bank to the National Statistics Institute (INE), while the actual figures may differ, the trend does not: prices are rising, and have been for around three years.

This trend is further confirmed by figures published this week by the Spanish Notaries Association, which has reported that the average price per square metre in Spain increased by 5.67% in 2016 compared to 2015.

The notary data also showed that foreign interest in Spanish property remained strong in 2016, with 13.25% of all homes bought last year by non-Spaniards. In real data terms, this equates to approximately 53,000 homes sold to foreigners, of which 19% were bought by British buyers.

Indeed, that makes Brits accountable for 2.5% of all homes bought in Spain in 2016 – which is double the amount of properties bought by the next most prominent nationality, the Germans.