Which nationalities are buying in Spain?
All indications are that the market is positive with British buyers still the largest group, making up 22.5% of total visits to the site and up 18% year on year. Spanish visitors have increased by 12% in the last year and the Netherlands, France and Belgium made it to the top five in terms of total visitors, with their numbers being up by 62.5%, 40% and an impressive 77% respectively. The remainder of the top ten is made up of German (35%), Swedish (34%) and Italian (15%) visitors and lastly, Irish (-4%) and Swiss (28%) visitors in positions nine and ten. You might notice that Ireland is the only country in the top ten that has seen a reduction in visitor numbers during the year.
Should you be worried about Brexit?
The continuing uncertainty surrounding Brexit is, of course, a concern to many of the agents we work with. With a failure yet again to implement a deal, and now a UK general election in December, the situation won’t be clarified any time soon. And while we’ve seen that British buyers are still the largest single country group, this can be compared to 59.2% of visitors coming from the rest of Europe and 18.3% from countries outside of the continent. It might be comforting to note that European visitors to online portals (excluding British), have increased 31% year on year. This is a promising indicator for the future of the housing market in Spain, regardless of the Brexit outcome.
What types of properties are international buyers looking for?
Almost 40% of international buyers are searching for apartments in Spain. Villas are the second most popular type of property, representing around 30% of the demand. When it comes to property price, buyers are looking predominantly within the range of €50.000-€250.000. Budget options – properties within the €50,000-€100,000 price range – have been attracting more enquiries (25%) than any other range. A similar number (22%) of buyers are looking for properties costing between €150,000 and €250,000 followed by a slightly smaller number of people (19%) looking for homes priced between €100,000 to €150,000.
And whereabouts?
Our data indicates, as has been the case for a while, that international buyers are showing the greatest interest in mainland coastal hotspots rather than the islands they were previously so keen on.
Cities in Murcia, Alicante and Cadiz in the south and southeast of the country are the areas that received the most enquiries.
Drilling down into specifics, Camposol in Murcia has remained at the top of the list with a median property price of €115,000. Chiclana De La Frontera (average price €185,000) in the province of Cadiz is next, with Torrevieja in Alicante (€130,000), the city of Alicante (€166,900) and Mazarron in Murcia (€142,500) completing the list.
What does this mean for agents in Spain?
There is every reason to be positive about the housing market in Spain. The market for international buyers is growing, with increasing interest from all parts of the world. Given the uncertainty in the political and financial landscape in the UK, which has long been the largest country group to show interest in Spanish property, this is good news for all of our agents!
