04 March, 2019

By VIVA Team

Post-crisis property sales record

Foreign home buyers in Spain set a new record in 2018 for transaction volumes since the fallout from the financial crisis, according to data published in the Spanish Registrars Association’s1 annual report.

The figures show that 65,295 transactions were made by overseas property buyers in Spain over the twelve months of 2018, which equates to a huge 11% rise compared to the previous year.

Sales three times higher than in 2009

This number is only marginally lower than the interest in Spanish property at the height of the housing “boom” in 2007, when 65,368 homes were sold to foreign buyers.

The difference, a mere 73 sales, represents just one percentage point and means that foreigners see the Spanish housing market as an increasingly secure and attractive investment opportunity.

To put this volume into perspective, and to evidence the exceptional recovery of the real estate market over the course of the last decade, the sales total for foreign home buyers in Spain in 2009 was a shade fewer than 18,000.

That’s more than three times fewer sales than last year.

Best properties on the Costa del Sol
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By nationality

In terms of the international buyer profile, little has changed over the last decade. While the Scandinavian market (9.5% of all purchases) has strengthened and now stands higher than the buying figures registered by German (7.7%), French (7.3%) and Belgian (6.6%) buyers, the Brits still lead the way… and by some distance.

Accounting for almost 15% of all homes snapped up by international buyers last year, the UK market – despite Brexit shenanigans – remains as strong as ever with 10,722 transactions registered in 2018.

Foreign home buyers in Spain smash post-crisis property sales record. Scandinavian market

Many reasons for excellent statistics

As I wrote in the middle of February, the quantity of property transactions increased 10.1% in 2018 as a whole, meaning it was a breakthrough year for the sector across the board. But international interest also responded to the favourable market conditions.

Foreign home buyers in Spain bought 13% of the residential real estate that changed hands in 2018, meaning that the remaining 87% were domestic purchases by Spaniards.

Foreign home buyers in Spain smash post-crisis property sales record. Excellent statistics

There are various reasons why Spain continues to attract foreign investment, some of which I have written about in recent blog posts:

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Sources:

1 http://www.registradores.org/