A total of 91,338 homes were sold in April to June, the best second quarter since 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Works. Of the total, 16.4 percent of the sales were to foreign residents, as the number of purchases by non-Spanish citizens rose for the 12th consecutive quarter.
The acquisition of homes by foreigners accounted for 17.7 per cent of the market share, with notaries describing them as the “principal motor of growth” for the Spanish property market.
The British are still the biggest group of foreign buyers, with 16.7 per cent of the market, but they no longer dominate as they did in the boom, according to Spanish Property Insight, when they were closer to 30 per cent of the foreign market, and 75 per cent of the second-home market. The market today is much more diversified than it was in the boom, which is positive news for Spain.
And the growing presence of US, Russian and Chinese buyers is a sign that the Golden Investment Visa initiative, introduced in September 2013 may be starting to have an effect.
It’s all good news for the Spanish property market, which has had a turbulent few years, to put it mildly.
