Spain housing market continues to be more popular among foreigners in Europe. The price of housing increased by 9.4% per annum during the first quarter of 2018, according to land registry office in Spain. About 63,000 homes were registered by foreigners in 12 months.
According to the Real Estate Statistics of the Registrar’s Association corresponding to the first quarter, between January and March, 128,990 home purchases were registered in the property registers, 15.3% more than in the previous quarter.
Purchase of homes by foreigners
The purchase of housing by foreigners has been 13.1% of the purchases in Spain. In the last twelve months, foreigners have registered about 63,000 home purchases. In the first quarter along, more than 16,500 home purchases have been registered by foreigners. Brits lead the table in property purchases in Spain
- British (14.6%),
- Germans (7.9%),
- French (7.6%),
- Belgian (6.8%),
- Swedish (6, 6%),
- Italians (5.8%) and
- Romanians (5.4%).
The highest number of home purchases by foreign citizens during the first quarter were the Balearic Islands, where 31.7% of the purchases of the region were made by foreigners, followed by the Canary Islands (29.6% ), the Valencia Community (26.5%) and Murcia (17.5%).
Golden visa scheme
Spain has a golden visa scheme offering residence permits to foreign property buyers who invest 500,000 euros or more..
Mortgages
According to new mortgage statistics, Foreigners buy a third of houses in the islands. 6.9% of mortgages on housing have been formalized by foreigners, exceeding 21,000 mortgages. Foreigners subscribe to 7% of new mortgages for housing. The nationalities with the highest percentage of mortgage mortgages on housing in relation to total mortgages formalized by foreigners were: Romanian (11.6%), British (9.3%), Chinese (8.4%), Italian (5.8%), French (4.6%), Moroccans (4.2%) and Germans (4%).
