Brits Snap Up One in Five Spanish Homes Sold to Foreigners
According to reports in The Independent newspaper, British property investors are taking full advantage of a weak euro in Spanish property markets in 2015, with one fifth of all foreign purchases in the country being snapped up by savvy buyers capitalising on the significantly increased purchasing power of the pound.
New figures published by the Spanish land registry show that Britons, more than any other nationality are taking advantage of a combination of favourable economic factors. In the last 12 months, the euro has fallen from around 80p to the pound to just over 70p, making holiday homes in the Spanish Costas more appealing to British buyers.
Slow price growth in Spain, coupled with rapidly rising property prices in the UK – in some instances by more than 10% a year – mean that Spanish property is making less of a dent in Britons’ wallets. In a report published by the Colegio de Registradores, 19.8% of all property bought by non- Spanish buyers in the first six months of 2015 went to UK buyers. German and other northern Europeans are stymied by the weak euro, while buyers from Russia and China have reduced activity in Spain’s property markets after being hit by sanctions or weakening domestic economies.
As many as 750,000 Britons live in Spain for at least part of the year. “The British market is by far the most important,” said Marc Pritchard, the Majorca-based sales and marketing director of Taylor Wimpey España, which develops homes in popular coastal areas. “There are several factors at play but people are starting to realise that after years of the Spanish housing market being depressed, it is beginning to pick up.”