The weight of foreigners in house purchases reaches percentages not seen since before the pandemic, in a context of high demand.
Foreign demand in the residential market has registered significant growth during the final stretch of last year, according to registrars. In the fourth quarter of 2021, 12.6% of all home purchases in Spain corresponded to foreign citizens. The British once again lead the way in home purchases by foreigners, overtaking the Germans, while the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and the Valencian Community are the areas with the highest proportion of owners of other nationalities.
The improvement in the health situation and the recovery of mobility in Spanish airports has favoured the increase in home transactions by foreigners in the final stretch of last year. "The relative control of the health situation during the second half of the year, with a notable increase in international mobility, has meant the return of non-resident foreign demand which, together with the notable weight of resident foreign demand, has given rise to these good results in percentage terms, which are even more relevant in a context of high activity in the number of sales and purchases", emphasise the Association of Property Registrars.
Weight of home purchases by foreigners
In the fourth quarter of 2021 there were nearly 144,000 home sales and purchases in Spain, according to registry data. Of these, 12.6% were carried out by foreign nationals, i.e. some 18,150 transactions. Nationally, the main buyers were British (2,219), Germans (1,953), French (1,336), Moroccans (1,024), Belgians (983) and Swedes (937).
These data once again make UK citizens the main group interested in living in Spain, after ceding the lead to Germans last quarter. However, at the close of 2021, the weight of the British in the volume of purchases by foreigners was 12.4%, followed by Germans (10.9%), French (7.5%), Moroccans (5.7%), Belgians (5.5%) and Swedes (5.2%).
By regions, the highest weights of home purchases by foreigners were recorded in the Balearic Islands (38.9%), Canary Islands (25.9%), Valencia (24.3%), Murcia (17.5%), Andalusia (13%) and Catalonia (12.7%).
31 provinces have improved their quarter-on-quarter percentage data in the weight of foreign operations, led by Alicante (39.3%), Baleares (38.9%), Malaga (30.6%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (28.8%), Girona (27%), Las Palmas (22.2%), Murcia (17.5%), Almeria (17%), Castellon (13.2%) and Tarragona (12.5%).
"The most intense improvements have been registered in the coastal areas, with a greater impact from the demand of non-resident foreigners," the notaries add. "The continuity in the recovery process of foreign demand for housing in the last three quarters during 2022 will be conditioned by the evolution of the health situation and international mobility," they conclude.
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