Sales of Spanish property increased 11.1% last year, with Málaga leading the charge

More and more people are snapping up a home in Spain, while the tourists continue to visit in record numbers.

The latest official government data on the state of the Spanish property market has revealed that the number of homes sold across the country in 2015 rose by 11.1%.

The year ended strongly, with December seeing 27,625 property transactions – a 6.8% increase on the same month in 2014…

December’s data was the final missing piece of the property puzzle, with the government figures published this week revealing that 354,132 properties changed hands across the entire country for the whole of 2015.

Since March 2014, 21 of the 22 months up until the end of last year have recorded positive growth, which suggests that the trend will only continue deep into 2016 and, many experts believe, through to 2017.

In the Málaga region, around 150 sales were registered per 100,000 inhabitants, making it the most ‘active’ property market in the country. Although official data does not group the Costa del Sol together, anecdotal and historical data would suggest that the ratio is even higher there.

In other news, the National Statistics Institute (INE) of Spain also revealed this week that foreign tourist spending in Spain hit a new record in 2015, with visitors to the country shelling out €67 billion over the course of the year.

This new high mirrored a record number of tourists for 2015 (68.1 million), and was further proof that Spain really is the preferred destination for British property buyers and holidaymakers – Brits accounted for €14,057 million in tourist spending last year, which was a 10% increase on 2014.

Hence, British tourists were responsible for 20 cents of every euro spent by foreigners in Spain in 2015. This love affair – for decades so mutually beneficial – grows from strength to strength…