Why do so many Italians buy property in Spain?

Italians are the fourth biggest group of foreign buyers of homes in Spain, behind the British, Germans and French. What’s in it for them?

Italians bought 9,000 properties in Spain last year, and 4,500 in the first half of this year, according to data from the notaries, making them the fourth biggest foreign market for property in Spain, as illustrated by the chart above.

I get why the British and Germans by property in Spain, but why the Italians? They have their own Mediterranean coast and lifestyle not dissimilar to Spain, so why go to all the hassle of buying in a foreign country what you can more or less get at home?

My theory is that the majority of ‘Italians’ buying homes in Spain are actually Argentines with Italian passports because it’s so easy to get an Italian passport through ancestry, and many Argentines descend from Italian immigrants. I guess that’s where Messi gets his Italian name.

The data supports this theory. For all other European markets, more than half of buyers are foreign non-residents buying second homes (88pc in the case of the Swedes). On the other hand, 77pc of Italian buyers are expats, the highest by far, as illustrated in the next chart. They have the biggest share of the expat market with 9pc, followed by the British on 7pc.

Where do they buy? Mainly in the Canaries (45pc), and Barcelona (14pc). I have no theory as to what draws so many Argentine / Italians to the Canaries. Perhaps they really are Italian Italians escaping to winter sunshine they can’t get even find in Sicily.

But if I am right, why, then, are so many Argentines buying homes in Spain? I assume because Argentines with resources are trying to escape economic problems back home, and the Spanish language and culture make it easy for them to assimilate. Spain is probably a more convenient destination for Argentines with Italian passports than Italy itself. 

Explore Italian demand in depth in the Data Hub.