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Notaries: Sales to Foreigners Ascend 12% in Q2

23/09/2014 – ABC, El Economista

According to the latest update by Spanish Association of Notaries, foreigners purchased 11.9% homes more in the second quarter of the year, sealing 18.466 transactions in total. The data also reveals that non-residents acounted for 54.3% of all sales to foreigners.

Both residents and non-residents represented a group by 13% bigger in the second quarter of 2014 if compared with the number of deals closed by them in Q2 2013. Non-residents increased their contribution by 11% year-on-year.

As per the Notary data, the main reason for the rise in operations carried out by the expatriate group could be the tax deduction which ended together with the year 2012.

By Spanish regions, it is clear that foreigners would rather choose coastal areas. Residents are believed to be principally motivated by increased interest in holiday housing on the part of non-residents.

Namely, the sharpest upsurges in sales to foreigners have been observed along the coasts of the Basque Country (an astonishing 63.2% increase), Andalusia (19.7%), Catalonia (18.7%), the Canary Islands (14.4%), Valencian Community (5%) and Murcia (2.7%).

By inland regions, the number of purchases by this group of buyers went up significantly in Castille and Leon (+40%), Extremadura (+32.1%), Madrid (+30.5%), less acutely in Galicia (+6.7%) and Castille-La Mancha (+4.4%). In turn, other areas like the Balearic Islands (-1.3%), Cantabria (-3.2%), La Rioja (-10%), Navarre (-14.5%), Aragon (-15.1%) and Asturias (-20%) seemingly lost in importance on the foreign maps.

Considering the sales in terms of nationality, the British account for a major part of them (16.7%), followed by the French (10.5%), Russians (7.1%), Germans (6.6%), Belgians (6.1%) and the Swedish (5.7%). Altogether, they represent over half of the market.

When it comes to transaction development in line with nationality, most active buyers in the second quarter of the year were the Irish (70.4% up), then the Northern Americans (51.4%), the Chinese (45%), the British (42.5%) and the Italian (32.4%).

Speaking of expats, the Irish and the American purchased most accounting for 92.3% and 45.6% of all acquisitions respectively, whereas the Chinese and the Algerian led in the non-resident sales ranking.

Rise in Prices

The price of a square meter of a property bought by a foreigner in the second quarter of 2014 increased by 1.5% y-o-y and post 1.548 euros. According to the Notaries, the data indicates stabilization in housing price slump.

If distinguishing between home sales to expats and non-residents, in the second quarter of 2014, the first paid by 0.6% less, whereas the other by 2.8% more for the Spanish properties.

While in the rest of regions of Spain the prices kept falling, in Navarre and the Basque Country they skyrocketed (up 121.9% and 116.2% respectively), with less impressive rises in the Balearic Islands (+8.6%), Catalonia (+6%), Castille and Leon (+3.6%) and Galicia (1.3%). 

Original article: ABC, El Economista

Translation: AURA REE