Insight into the Spanish property market, guides to help you make informed decisions, and a directory of real estate professionals and home service providers from a source you can trust.
This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
When you buy or sell property in Spain the sums of money are large, perhaps one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. The high transaction costs you will face like taxes and commissions only make the decision more important to get right. And when you own property in Spain you face a host of extra challenges to manage, and costs to control. Unfortunately, the Spanish property market is opaque and full of pitfalls, and notoriously unprofessional. Buying and selling property in Spain is not a decision to be taken lightly, and you may find it much easier to buy than sell if you don’t take care. In this market it is crucial to do your own research, and don’t rely exclusively on people who are trying to sell you something – let’s just say they might not have your best interests at heart. Spanish Property Insight is the only independent source of information and analysis of the Spanish property market. Don’t even think about buying or selling property in Spain without subscribing to Spanish Property Insight.
Foreign demand as a percentage of the Spanish housing market 2016The Spanish press was full of news yesterday about the slump in British demand post-Brexit, but regular readers of SPI will have know about this since February.
The trigger for the sudden interest in foreign demand was the publication this week of The Spanish Registrars Association’s annual report on the housing market. This revealed that foreign demand now accounts for a record 13.25% of the Spanish housing market, significantly higher than the 8.97% clocked up in the boom year of 2006.
The other big story in the registrars’ figures was the retrenchment in British demand, which fell from 21% of foreign demand in 2015, to 19% in 2016, something the registrars attributed, quite rightly, to Brexit. This shows a “declining trend in relative importance [of British demand] since Brexit,” say the registrars, “in contrast to what happened before, when quarter after quarter its relative importance increased, taking advantage of the strong Pound.” The registrars lament the “reduction in demand from our biggest market.”
The retrenchment in British demand has been given considerable attention in the Spanish press, and also got a fair bit of coverage in the international media. You would think this news had taken us by surprise. But I wrote about this back in February, when the registrars published their quarterly figures for Q4. Knowing, as I do, that the registrars publish their annual report at a leisurely pace (we are almost into May), I always make an effort to dig the figures out of every quarterly report and give my readers a reliable picture of annual foreign demand about three months before the story hits the news wires.
If you consider growing demand for property in Spain to be a good thing, then the positive news is that demand is growing from an ever-increasing number of countries, with the notable exceptions of Norway, Russia, and Denmark. But the annual report from the registrars paints a picture of retrenchment in British demand, which they only mention as losing relative importance. In reality British demand has slumped, at least if the figures for Q4 2017 are anything to go buy (-28%).
Everything you need to know about property in Spain
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