Number of Brits buying property in Spain drops to historic low

THE number of Brits buying property in Spain has dropped to an historic low thanks to Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.

But Brits do still make up the largest proportion of foreign buyers in Spain accounting for 9.5% of all foreign buyers, a considerable decrease however from 2009 when almost one in three foreign buyers (30%) of property in Spain were British.

The latest data published by Spain’s Association of Registrars reveals that foreign property sales are on the rise once again after a dip caused by the coronavirus.

In the second three months of 2021, property purchases by foreigners accounted for 9.95% of all of Spain’s real estate sales, up from 9.7% in the first quarter of the year.

While Brits make up the largest share, they are followed by Germans (9%) Moroccans (8.3%), French (7.0%) and Romanians (6.1%).

The data revealed a drop by 2.6% in British buyers, a fact blamed on Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic during which visitors from the UK were restricted.

The percentage of property sales to foreigners has dropped in all regions of Spain except the Balearic Islands and La Rioja.

Those areas which prove most popular for foreign buyers are not surprisingly popular holiday destinations topped by the Balearics which saw 29.8% of its properties bought by foreigners from April to June followed by 23.9% in the Canary Islands, 19.5% in the Valencian region and 14.7% in Murcia.

During the second quarter of 2021, a total of 137,204 house purchases were entered in property registers across Spain, which represents an increase of 6.2% over the previous quarter.

In terms of property prices, Madrid records the highest average per square meter with prices at 2,820 / m2), the Basque Country comes a close second (€ 2,781 / m2), followed by the Balearic Islands (€ 2,731 / m2) and Catalonia (€ 2,268 / m2) .

Only two regions of Spain have an average price per square metre below €1,000, which are Extremadura (€ 717 / m2), and Castilla – La Mancha (€ 813 / m2).