The French market for Spanish property
Data and analysis of the French market for property in Spain in periodic reports highlighting key trends of interest to anyone looking to buy or sell property in areas of Spain where the French are active in the local property market.
The annual report will go into more detail on French demand by region, how much buyers from France spend on property in Spain, and the headwinds / tailwinds driving or hindering buyers from France. The half-yearly report just updates the main charts with the latest numbers. The first annual report will be published for 2024 when the numbers are available in the first half of 2025.
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2024 H1
2,412 Spanish home sales inscribed in the Land Registry in the first half of 2024 (H1) involved a French buyer, down 24pc compared to the same period in the previous year, and 1p below the ten-year average. It was the 6th best year for sales in the last decade.
The French were the third biggest group of foreign buyers of property in Spain in H1, behind the British and the Germans.
The market share of French buyers (as a percentage of the overall number of foreigners buying property in Spain) fell to 5.6pc, down from a high of 9.1pc in 2015.
Looking at the year-on-year percentage change in sales in both H1 and Q2 compared to other countries, France posted one of the biggest declines in H1, behind only Russia, and sales did not pick up in Q2, as they did in the UK and Germany.
Where do the French buy homes in Spain? There are no figures yet for H1 2024, but the picture from 2023 will be broadly similar.
Why is French demand for property in Spain declining, and below the ten-year average? It may have something to do with political and economic problems back home, but falling house prices back in France are also part of the picture. When house prices decline in France, the number of buyers heading for Spain also falls, as illustrated by the final chart.
2024 Q1
French demand for property in Spain is declining faster than any other big market, according to data from the Spanish land registrars’ association.
1,279 Spanish home sales involved a French buyer in the first quarter of the year, down 24pc on the same period in 2023, and just below the ten-year average, as illustrated by the chart above.
In the last ten years Q1 sales to French buyers have been higher in six of them. Excluding the Covid-induced slump of 2021 you have to go back to 2016 to find a first quarter with lower sales, which suggests that French buyers are losing interest in Spanish property, perhaps due to headwinds at home. That said, French demand was only 1pc below the ten-year average.
Year-on-year, the number of French buyers suffered the biggest decline of all foreign markets for property in Spain, with a decline of 24pc, as illustrated by the next chart. So if you are in a market segment where French buyers are important you might find it more difficult than before to find a buyer.
The French share of the foreign market fell to 5.9pc (next chart), down from a high of 10.2pc in Q1 of 2015, leaving them in third place behind British and German buyers, and just ahead of the Belgians. French buyers have averaged 8pc of the foreign market over the last decade.
Where do the French buy homes in Spain? There are no numbers for Q1 to answer that question, but based on Registry data for 2023 it’s safe to say that Catalonia took the lion’s share with close to 50pc, followed by the Valencian region and Andalusia, as illustrated by the final chart.
Get much more detail on French buyers and all the other foreign markets for property in Spain, plus access to all the public data on the Spanish housing market summarised in helpful tables and interactive charts by subscribing to the Spanish Property Insight Data Hub.
