You will surely not be surprised if we tell you that the British are the foreigners who buy the most homes in Spain . They love spending their holidays in our country and some even choose to move to one of our coasts when they reach retirement age. The good weather and the lower property prices than in their country of origin have led many English people to take out mortgages for non-residents to buy a home in our country.
However, following the referendum on 23 June 2016, which marked the start of the UK's exit from the European Union, sales fell by 23.6% in the second half of 2016 and by 16.1% in the first half of 2017. But now things have changed and the British are once again at the forefront of home sales.
The 'Brexit effect' on our real estate market is diminishing
According to the General Council of Notaries in a report corresponding to the second quarter of 2017, the purchase and sale of homes by foreigners increased by 14.1% compared to 2016, when a decrease in transactions in our country was noted due to the 'Brexit effect' which, fortunately, has not weakened the investment of the British in our real estate market in 2017.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the post, the British are the foreigners who make the most purchases in our country despite Brexit, their transactions account for 14.3% of the total made by foreigners.
By nationality, the French are second in the ranking of purchasers (8.4%), followed by the Germans (8.1%) and Romanians (6.8%). The remaining third of the total percentage corresponds to buyers from outside the EU , among which Morocco (5.7%), China (5.2%) and Russia (3.1%) stand out. The total number of operations is equivalent to 19.5% of the purchase and sale transactions in our country, around 49,553 homes.
By communities, all registered increases in the number of free housing transactions by foreigners, eleven of them registered increases above the national average (14.1%), highlighting Extremadura (54.9%), Cantabria (38.3%) and Navarra (34.0%).
Between 20 and 30% were located in Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, La Rioja, the Basque Country, Murcia and Asturias, while in the Valencian Community (19.8%) and Castilla y León (15.7%)
However, there were smaller increases in the remaining six autonomous regions: Andalusia (12.8%), Galicia (9.8%), the Canary Islands (8.7%), the Balearic Islands (5.3%) and Aragon (2.8%). Catalonia is at the bottom of the list with 2.5%, which is a big difference with the first half of the year, when it was 19.8%.
On the other hand, the average price per square metre of transactions carried out by foreign buyers in the second half of 2017, referring to free housing, stood at €1,717, which represented a year-on-year price increase of 5.7%, almost double that of the first half.
For more information, visit our Quick Guide to Mortgages for Foreigners in Spain.