Chinese & Algerians Among the Top Buyers of Spanish Real Estate

3/09/2014 – Cinco Dias

Protracted crisis in Spain caused a complete transformation of the profile of home buyers. In 2009, only 4.24% of all purchases were transacted by foreigners, while presently they buy three times as much – 13.03% – driving a new historic record high.

Speaking of the nations snapping up the Spanish real estate most, Britons unchangeably lead in the ranking accounting for 15.3% of all sales to foreigners. Next position themselves the French (10.77%) and Russians (8.54%), according to the latest quarterly update by the Property Registrars of Spain.

Extraordinarily, among the top 10 countries one may find nations that have not appeared therein before. For instance, China and Algeria, that are beyond 3.1% and 2.7% of the total of transactions respectively. The upsurge has been probably impulsed by application of the new Law of Entrepreneurs which offers a permanent stay for those foreigners who buy a property worth half a million euros and more or public debt for two million euros.

As per the statistics, home prices rose by 0.97% in the second quarter year-on-year and this is the first increase in the last six years. The figures may mean a turning point in the slump in values that reaches 32% since its peaks.

Equadorians Lead in Foreclosures Number

Statistical numbers reveal that the repossessions market expanded in the second quarter by 18.921 units. Similarly, during the first three months of the year, 18.480 houses were foreclosed. The Andalusia and the Catalonia regions registered most new REO assets with 4.067 and 4.028 dwellings respectively (together accounting for 43% of the total), whereas banks the Basque Country and La Rioja repossessed least with 94 and 39 units respectively. 88.42% of the cases corresponded to Spaniards and 11.58% to foreigners. Among the latter, most affected were Equadorians (18.4%), followed by Morrocans (11.38%) and Britons (9.22%).

How come that Equadorians massively lose their homes if they are not the ones who buy most? Registrars call it a temporary deferment between the mortgage-fuelled purchase and the foreclosure. Even if they are not doing it now, Equadorians used to buy a lot of property during the upward economic cycle‘.

 

Original article: Cinco Días (by Carlos Molina)

Translation: AURA REE