27.2% Rise For Foreign Spanish Property Sales

Sales of Spanish property to foreign buyers has surged 27.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, according to recently released figures. Newly increasing demand from buyers from China and the Far East helped to drive up international sales to 20 per cent of all transactions, as the figures suggest the struggling housing market may finally have bottomed out.

According to the Spanish Council of General Notaries, foreign buyers constituted over one fifth of of Spanish property sales for the first quarter of 2014. International transaction soared 27.3 per cent year-on-year, fuelled by the rise of coastal and big city markets, such as the Costa del Sol and Madrid.

UK Dominance

UK buyers continue to account for the biggest share of activity, making up 13.8 per cent of all foreign purchases, ahead of the french and Russians with 10.5 and 8.4 per cent of the foreign buyers market respectively. Interest from non-EU buyers is also rising however, bolstered by the country’s newly introduced ‘Golden Visa’ scheme, Chinese sales have soared over 80 per cent year-on-year, a positive sign that the appeal of the country’s real estate market is beginning to spread.

Prices are continuing to fall, which is helping to attract British investors, but there are positive signs that the market is beginning to bottom out. According to the latest figures from Tinsa, the valuations firm, Spanish property values dropped 4 per cent in May, year-on-year, a significant improvement from the 10.4 per cent annual drop in May of last year. In fact, it is the lowest year-on-year drop since May 2008.
 .

Mediterranean Declines

The biggest declines have been recorded on the Mediterranean coast, with prices plunging 7.9 per cent year-on-year. Even here though, this is the slowest fall that has been witnessed in over 4 years. Interestingly, all of the Spanish house price indices are showing a similar trend, whilst some figures have been distorted over the past year due to the Spanish government’s short term tax discounts, which have seen transactions soar up towards the end of 2012 and slow down again in 2013 to meet the window, price data from Notaries, Tinsa and the National Institute of Statistics (INE) are, as experts from Spanish Property Insight report, “remarkably consistent.”

Opinions are certainly positive around the country, with sales in the Valencia region totalling 11,659 in the first quarter of 2014, a 31 percent year-on-year rise, according to the latest statistics published by the Ministry of Infrastructure.

The Alicante area in particular has shown strong recovery from troubled economic times over the first 3 months of the year. Home sales in the province have jumped 24.3 per cent, whilst for the first time in a number of years, domestic demand has also begun to gather pace, with an increase of 23.7 per cent.
.

Experts Opinion

Ron Wilkinson, property expert at Spanish real estate firm Alta Vista Property, has said that he expects to see the trend continue and thinks the market will bottom out some time this year.

“We are beginning to see small rises in house prices in certain areas, and in the areas where we are still witnessing declines, they are the smallest for several years. If things continue at the current rate, we should be seeing a nationwide rise in house price sometime in the next six months,” he explained.

“People in Spain are becoming increasingly optimistic regarding the real estate sector and we are beginning to see a lot more interest and enquiries from domestic buyers. This points to the beginnings of a nationwide recovery and we are hoping that the positive signs continue.”

Bradley Shore is an experienced blogger who focuses on real estate and property investment. He likes to impart knowledge upon his readership and enjoys heaqring feedback relating to his articles.