In our country, housing sales on the part of foreigners have increased 52,7% during the first six months of 2022. These important facts and figures highlight the weight of foreign buyers in our real estate system. According to the Consejo General del Notariado, currently in Spain 20,3% of the real estate deals are made by foreigners (during the first six months of 2022, foreigners purchased 72.987 properties). Actually, we really cannot say that this information has caught us off guard; some time ago, we wrote an article in this blog about luxury housing sales in Spain. It seems clear that as regards real estate, foreign buyers are key players in our country. Nonetheless, this is not only about high standing property but it also spreads to every other kind of real estate. If we compare data, we can see that in the second six months of the previous year, 2021, housing sales on the part of foreigners increased 41,9%. This is a remarkable figure, but it is nearly 10% less than that of 2022. In all, housing sales on the part of foreigners have grown during three consecutive quarters in spite of the decrease that took place in 2019 and in 2020. In 2022, foreign residents carried out the highest number of deals, 54,3% of them. This meant a growth of more than 25% in relation to the previous year. However, the most significant data shows that 45,7% of the housing sales were made by non-resident foreigners, which meant 106,1% more than the previous year. That is to say, that in Spain, the increase of deals carried out by non-resident foreigners was spectacular.

THE BRITISH BUYERS AT THE HEAD

The most noteworthy foreign housing buyers were the British, as they carried out 10,7% of the deals in our country. Next and very close behind, come the Germans having made 10,2% of the deals. Then, and at a considerable distance, come the French who purchased 7,7% of the houses on sale in Spain. It should be noted that if we bring together all the non-resident foreign buyers of the European Union, they account for 10,9% of the purchases, being the lowest percentage in three years. This means that, currently, in our country the British, the German and the French housing buyers are the most outstanding ones among the rest of the foreigners. During the first six months of this year, all the nationalities increased the number of housing deals; therefore, we can say that at the present time the foreign buyers are playing an important role in our real estate system. If we take a look at the increase in the number of deals, we can see that the Dutch, the Norwegian and the Irish buyers stand out among the rest, with an increase of 121,5%, 119,5% and 106,7% respectively.

THE PURCHASE OF MORE EXPENSIVE PROPERTY

We have already mentioned that foreign buyers play a fundamental role in the luxury housing sector and as the report made by the Consejo General del Notariado shows, the most exclusive properties are purchased by foreigners. The average price per square metre of foreign buyers stood at 2.062€ which is 10,6% more than in the first six months of 2021. The non-resident foreigners paid for property in Spain an average amount of 2.522€/m2, being followed not too far behind, by the residents with 1.622€/m2. On the other hand, the Spanish buyers paid an average amount of 1.560€/m2 for their flats. If we separate the buyers by nationalities then we can see that those who paid the highest price were the Danish (with an average price of 2.87€/m2), the Norwegians and the Swedes (both with 2.701€/m2), and then the Germans (2.657€/m2).

Picture 02: zinkevych