Staff Reporter
THE number of properties bought by foreigners, while still up, has shrunk to the slowest rate of increase since the second half of 2010.
Figures for the last six months of 2018 show a 1.4% rise on the same period a year before but although it looks positive on paper, Spain’s General Council of Notaries has pointed to a slow down in demand.
“In comparison to the previous year, the increases registered in the two halves of 2018 were a long way from the results of 2017, when growth was above 10%,” the council stated. Non-residents accounted for 44% of foreign demand, and expats living in Spain 56%, between August and December last year.
In this period, non-resident demand fell by 4.9%, whilst expat demand was also down from 11.3% in the first half of 2019.
The council added:“It appears that the trend towards growth in the purchases of real estate by foreign residents, which had been growing by more than 10% every semester since 2014, has been interrupted.”
Of course the EU could offer the UK a decent deal and the problem might go away.
Vulcanben, there is no problem, this is a solution to us. The problem for the past 20 years has been the bubble + lack of active population and displacement of the locals that the foreign purchase of houses there has caused. This may cause some distress to a couple companies but it’s not something the country wants to fix.