The Spanish Property Registrars have released their data for the third quarter of 2015 and it reveals the best quarterly result for foreign purchases since records began with a total of 12,545 Spanish properties being bought by foreigners from July to September.
The total number of sales for the quarter was 92,786 which is the highest sales volume since the first quarter of 2013 and the second highest since the first quarter of 2011. The low of 72,560 recorded at the depths of the crisis in the fourth quarter of 2013 now seems a distant memory with this quarter’s results beating that figure by over 20,000 sales.
Year-on-year total sales are up by 16.6% with foreign purchases having risen by a massive 20.3%. The results when compared with the second quarter are also extremely impressive with total sales increasing by 6.4% and foreign purchases up by 12.2%.
British again driving increases
As can be seen in Graph 1, increases in the number of British buyers were again the principal reason for the rise in the total number of purchases made by foreigners and the British increased their share of the foreign market to 23.12% in the quarter, equal to 2,895 purchases.
Graph 1: Top ten foreign nationalities purchasing property in Spain (excluding Romania & Morocco)
The number of British buyers was up an enormous 53.5% year-on-year and 30.8% on the previous quarter in astonishing results which show that British buyers truly have returned en masse as purchasers of Spanish property driven by the strength of the pound and the solidity of the UK economy.
Sweden
There was also an impressive increase in the number of Swedes buying in Spain in Q3. There were 798 purchases of Spanish properties made by Swedish nationals in the third quarter which put Sweden joint third with Germany behind only the UK and France. The number of Swedish buyers was up 26% year-on-year and 27% on the previous quarter.
France
After dropping below 1,000 for the first time in six quarters in Q2 (907), the number of French buyers increased in Q3 to 1,095 therefore up 21% on last quarter but only 0.1% year-on-year with the results for the last few quarters showing a stabilisation in the number of French buyers.
Russia & China
The Russian market continues its descent and has now strung together 6 consecutive quarters of decreases. The number of Russian buyers in Q3 stood at 417 in ninth place behind China in eighth which notably passed the 500 mark for the first time with 501 purchases registered in the quarter.
However, with Europe and the USA looking more likely to start collaborating with Russia in the fight against ISIS this may also ease the sanctions imposed on Russia and in turn cause a rise in the value of the Rouble and a re-activation in the number of Russian purchases.
Belgium
The number of purchases made by Belgians fell for the second consecutive quarter after setting a record in Q1 of 823. There were 696 Belgian buyers in the third quarter which still represented a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, the next few quarters will be interesting in order to see if this is a momentary blip or if it becomes a consolidated decrease.
Other nations
Ukraine has performed strongly over the last 2 quarters and Ukrainians made 232 purchases in Q3 to sit behind Holland in the standings. Switzerland and Ireland also continued to post solid figures accounting for 186 and 158 purchases respectively with Swiss interest reportedly increasingly strong on the Costa Blanca North.
Main image: Artist’s impression of the Aeras & Terra Phase II property development in Algorfa on the Costa Blanca, Valencian Community ©Patrimi Resorts S.L.
