Cole Sinanian
A STUDY has suggested nine out of ten new homes on the Costa del Sol are being reserved by foreign buyers.
The data has come from a report by major developer AEDAS Homes, entitled Profile of the International Buyer of New Construction Homes 2023.
The study, based on a sample of more than 400 clients, says the construction of new homes to international buyers grew by 13% in 2023.
Meanwhile, on the Costa del Sol, nine out of 10 brand new homes are being reserved by foreign purchasers.
According to AEDAS, the Polish account for most foreign reservations (20.9%), followed by the Dutch (12.8%) and the Czechs (8.7%).
The AEDAS study also provided further details about the demographics of foreigners buying homes in Spain.
The company does most of its business in major tourist regions like the Costa del Sol and the Balearic and Canary Islands, and found that the average buyer is a couple in their 50s, typically from Central or Western Europe, who buys a three-bedroom house.
Among AEDAS’ new home buyers, 53.5% bought their property as a second home, while 23.9% bought it as an investment, and 22.9% bought their home as a primary residence.
It comes as statistics released by the Spanish Property Registry have revealed that more than 33% of purchases in Malaga province in the fourth quarter of 2023 were made by foreigners, among the highest percentages in Spain.
The figures come at the end of Spain’s Golden Visa era, a controversial visa program meant to entice wealthy foreigners into buying property in Spain by offering them residence visas in exchange for a real estate purchase of at least €500,000.
The registry’s statistics show the highest percentage of property purchases by foreigners that surpassed the €500,000 Golden Visa threshold was in the Balearic Islands, with more than 30%, followed by Madrid at just under 20%, and Andalucia with 15%.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Malaga province had the third highest percentage of properties bought by foreigners, at 33.7%.
Ahead were Santa Cruz de Tenerife, at 35.7%, and Alicante, at 43.9%.
Other provinces with high percentages of foreign homebuyers included the Balearic Islands, with 31.5%; Girona, at 29.8%; and Murcia at 23.8%.
Rates of foreign property purchases in Malaga surpassed those in both Andalucia and Spain at large, both of which measured about 15%.
Looking at the previous year, the percentage of homes purchased by foreigners in the fourth trimester of 2022 in Andalucia was 15.03%, slightly more than 2023 at 14.95%.
This percentage increased in Alicante in 2023 to 43.95%, up from 41.75% in 2022, as well as in Malaga, up to 33.71% from 33.48% in 2022.
Going back to the property registry statistics, the top nationalities buying homes in Spain were the UK, representing 9.8%; Germany, at 7.3%; France, at 6.1%; and Belgium, representing 5.6% of foreign homebuyers in the fourth trimester of 2023.
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