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International demand for Spanish homes continued to be strong during 2018
During 2018 there was a 28% foreign buyers growth and the international demand for Spanish homes continued to be strong. According to ListGlobally's data, Spain was the second country in the world where foreign buyers inquired the most. In fact, 73% of inquiries came from UK, Germany, France, United States, Italy and China.
When it comes to sales in Spain, during 2018, 12.6% of all property sales were made by foreigners, increasing from around 61,000 in 2017 to almost 65,500 in 2018, according to the Spanish Property Registry. But who bought the most?
Raise your glasses to the British
The breakdown by nationality shows that British buyers continue to dominate, representing 15.5% of the total number of sales by foreigners, registering almost 10,200 transactions during 2018. This shows significant growth with respect to 2017, both proportionally (15% in 2017) and in absolute terms – there were just under 9,200 transactions in 2017. Despite the uncertainty due to Brexit, confidence in the Spanish real estate market has not wavered as has been the case since 2012.
German buyers climbed to second position, accounting for 7.5% of total foreign purchases, slightly down from 7.8% in 2017. However, there was an increase in absolute terms, with German buyers accounting for around 4,900 transactions, compared to approximately 4,750 sales in 2017.
French buyers occupy third place, representing 7.4% of foreign purchases, decreasing with respect to 2017, when the proportion was 8.6%. There were around 4,800 sales by the French, decreasing by around 500 sales when compared to 2017. In fourth place were the Belgians with 6.3% of foreign purchases, and around 4,100 transactions, compared to 6.4% in 2017, when they made just over 3,900 home sales. Swedish buyers were in fifth position, representing 5.8% of total foreign purchases.
The Autonomous Communities that registered more home sales
The Autonomous Communities with the greatest number of home sales by foreigners during 2018 were the Balearics with 30.5% (31.3% in 2017), the Canary Islands with 28.3% (31.4% in 2017) and the Valencian Community with 26% (same as 2017).
According to our data, if we only consider the intention of buying, we can see that most of foreign buyers inquired in Canary Islands with an average price of EUR 135 136, which indicates that foreign buyers are still looking for good deals.
The number of foreign buyers in Spain will continue to grow
Foreign buyers are still looking for good deals and Spain is one of the countries in Europe that will continue seduce these buyers. The reasons for this lasting relationship is due to life quality and prices per meter square that continue to be lower that in places like Paris, or Berlin. Having said, Spain will continue to blink its eyes to foreigners.
Note that there is also a growing number of Chinese buyers that are highly seduced by the Spanish "salero", lifestyle, and Golden Visa.
During 2019, we estimate that foreign buyers will continue to say "Hola" to Spain.
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