British and French election results will boost Spanish property sales

The British and French elections will drive more tax refugees to Spain, increasing property sales in the process.

British elections

The UK voted on the 4th of July. The Labour party under Sir Keir Starmer won two thirds of seats and a massive majority on the back of one fifth of the eligible vote. That’s the curiosity of the UK’s first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all electoral system.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone doing a worse job than the Tories but Labour just might pull it off once the honeymoon period is over. But even if they make a better fist of governing, taxes will have to go up significantly to pay for Labour’s vision of a bigger state, net zero, reward client groups, and satisfy the emotional desire of left wing voters to see wealth redistributed.

So, significantly higher taxes are on the way, whatever Labour did or didn’t say in the election campaign. Bond markets can turn their back on the government like they did on Liz Truss, but taxpayers have to cough up or leave. When higher taxes in the UK start to bite, an increasing number of wealthy people will vote with their feet. Where will they go? France?

French elections

A coalition dominated by the loony Left led by Stalinist tankie and Hugo Chavez fanboy Jean-Luc Mélenchon won the most seats in last Sunday’s elections, but failed to win an outright majority.

The French elections have left France either ungovernable, or in the hands of a hard Left that make Sir Keir Starmer look Thatcherite in comparison. France is already in a worse state than the UK; poisonously divided, and with catastrophic public finances. With the hard Left in government nobody will invest in France for the foreseeable future. Rich people are already leaving before the hard Left get a chance to impose their promised ‘Exit Tax’ to trap wealth in the country. Where will they go?

Spain beckons

Spain is not without its problems, but the government doesn’t look that bad compared to France. Barcelona is already full of French entrepreneurs and tax refugees who like living in a pleasant city just one hour from France by train. I expect there will now be a surge in French tax refugees heading for Barcelona, and an increase in British tax refugees heading for the Spanish coasts and islands, including some who might otherwise have gone to France.  British and French buyers are already the first and third biggest group of foreign buyers respectively, so an increase in buyers from both countries would have a big impact on the Spanish property market.

Find out about British and French demand in detail…..