Brits will never quit Costa Blanca and prove it by the billions

The Costa Blanca never did depend for its survival on bricks, mortar and property sales.

Tourism and even agriculture saw it through the darkest days of the economic crisis, but as the property market sees an increasing amount of genuine daylight at the end of the tunnel, the upturn is welcome nevertheless.

 ‘For Sale’ notices might not disappear overnight as they once did in the past, but neither are they there long enough to fade in the sun as they did when sales were at their lowest ebb in 2010 and 2011. And building is starting again.

Benidorm witnessed the start of its first big building project – two tower blocks as reported in last week’s Euro Weekly News  – since the crisis really began to bite.

There’s good news for the Marina Alta, too, where figures from the national government’s Ministry of Public Works showed that 4,902 properties were bought and sold in its 10 principal towns during 2015.  

This was more than at any time since 2008 with transactions rising for the fourth consecutive year.

Not just the Marina Alta, but the entire province owes much of the buoyant sales recovery to foreign buyers.

They now move an annual €2.25 billion according to records kept by Alicante Province’s official College of Notaries.  Or, to put it another way, more than the €2.02 billion Alicante’s marble, footwear and toy industries earn in exports.

And, as always, the faithful British buyer headed the list followed by the Swedish, Norwegians, Belgians and French.