Spain is the seventh most popular global destination amongst Chinese property investors claims Juwai – the biggest foreign property portal in China.
Based on an analysis of property searches carried out by Chinese users, Juwai found the most popular destinations were the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK, Thailand, New Zealand, and Spain.
Within Spain, the most popular searches were for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante (home to the Costa Blanca), and Marbella.
Searches for Spain were up 80% in a year, driven by increasing awareness in China of Spain’s attractive property prices and culture, claims the portal, which already has 15,000 Spanish property listings.
Chinese investors are also attracted by the Spanish ‘Golden Visa’ scheme, which offers conditional residence and a long-term path to Spanish citizenship in return for an investment of €500,000 in real estate in Spain (among other types of investment).
The popularity of Spain is growing amongst Chinese property investors as it becomes more difficult for them to invest in better known countries like the USA, Australia, and Canada, we are told.
According to the latest figures available on foreign demand for property in Spain (for Q1, from the Registrars), the Chinese were the seventh biggest group of foreign investors in Spanish housing, with 547 registered purchases in the first quarter of this year, up 18% on the same period last year. So Chinese demand for property in Spain is not that significant, but it does appear to be growing fast.