Since the COVID-19 outbreak started, we started analyzing the impact this crisis is having on the Foreign Buyers market. Two months ago, we noticed a strong increase in properties enquiries coming from China (x3). At the time, 81% of buyers told us they were still actively looking.
However we really wanted to analyze the behavior of different nationalities of buyers. Which nationalities of property buyers are most affected by The Great Lockdown? Are some countries more impacted than others?
COVID-19 | Impact on Foreign Buyers in Spain
We analyzed the evolution in property enquiries (also known as "leads"). Indeed, at ListGlobally, we help Foreign Buyers get in touch with real estate agents overseas. Our specificity is that we do not focus on one nationality, but instead generate leads from over 60 countries, by publishing real estate properties on over 100 property portals globally. Therefore, we are in a unique position to determine whether the British, the French, the Germans, the Italians or the Americans are changing their mind. So, what can we see?
Our first study concerns the Spanish Real Estate Market. We analyzed our five most important nationalities of foreign buyers in Spain: UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy.
1. Rock-Bottom 9-15 March
First conclusion is that week 11 (which is 9-15 March) was rock-bottom for all nationalities except for the Italians. Instead, enquiries from Italian buyers interested by Spanish properties hit rock-bottom a week before. Why is that?
While we can't give an exact reason, it might be more than a coincidence that the lockdown started earlier in Italy than in other countries such as Spain, France or the UK.
2. A V-Shaped Recovery?
While the global economic recovery is not going to be a V-shaped recovery according to Bloomberg, it seems that the Foreign Buyer market adopted a V-shaped recovery. By week 16 (which is 13-19 April), the number of leads was higher than it was in week 9 (24 Feb - 1 March).
Europe Reopens The Economy
As of Monday (4 May) millions of people across Europe are returning to "some semblance of their former lives" (CNN). For example, 4.4 million Italians went back to work today after seven weeks of restrictive measures.
Therefore for the EU’s tourism industry, the question is when will travel restrictions be lifted? For example, in order to motivate foreigners to visit Sicily as soon as possible, the Italian Mediterranean island of Sicily is offering to pay half the price of plane tickets and pay for one of every three nights in hotels. Indeed, the island's tourism industry lost over $1.5 billion in tourism revenue since Italy closed itself off on 10th March.
As tourism accounts for 12%-16% of Spain’s Gross Domestic Product, and represents more than 2.6 million jobs, Spain is also waiting for the end of travel restrictions. Let's hope this comes soon.
At ListGlobally we remain fully operational
Our full team is working from home during the Coronavirus Crisis. We are connected and have access to the right tools in order to Think Globally!
ListGlobally is the world’s largest network of property portals reaching +200M foreign buyers in +60 countries. One click, and your property is promoted all over the globe. We offer real estate agents international exposure, and we translate their listings details into 25 languages.
