Discover where foreigners buy more homes in Spain
The number of operations carried out by foreigners during the first semester of 2018 was 53,359.
The sale of homes in Spain continues to grow, although it shows signs of stagnation. If in general terms, in January of this year the number of operations increased by 0.3%, while the price increased by 2.6%, according to the data collected by the Consejo General del Notariado. According to the notaries, the housing sales by foreigners increased in the first half of 2018 by 5.6%, reaching 53,359 operations.
Differentiating by residence, 44% of foreign sales transactions were made by non-resident foreigners. For the first time since 2010, the sales of this segment of foreigners were reduced since last year (-0.8%). Resident foreigners accounted for 56% of purchases, which increased 11.1% since last year.
Not all communities provided the information to partake in these statistics.
The foreigners are still more into the Mediterranean coast and the islands. Thus, the Valencian Community had most of the operations (15,613), followed by Andalucía (9,737), Cataluña (7,560) and Canarias (5,312). Meanwhile, 4,911 operations were carried out in Madrid and 3,173 in the Balearic Islands.
Switzerland stands out above all with a decrease (-13.2%) followed by China (-6.4%) and Norway (-5.1%). The largest increases by nationality were Morocco (28.8%), Ireland (24.7%), Denmark (18.2%) and Russia (13.8%).
The average price per square meter of operations carried out by foreign buyers in the first half of 2018 was € 1,687. This meant a slight increase in prices to 0.9% since last year, well below those registered in the second half of 2017 (5.7%). Non-resident foreigners paid higher prices than residents (€ 1984 / m2 versus € 1426 / m2, respectively). The average price paid by non-resident foreigners grew faster (2.0%) than by residents (1.4%), although this difference is much less significant than in previous semesters.
At regional level, the evolution of prices was also mixed, decrease in price in five regions; Galicia (-11.8%), Navarra (-6.4%), Castilla y León (- 3.2%), Catalonia (-2.2%) and La Rioja (-1.1%). Meanwhile, the price increased in the remaining twelve regions. Among them the increase in Extremadura (30.0%) stands out remarkably. More moderately but registering double-digit increases were Madrid (12.8%) and País Vasco (11.4%).