Atlantic attention on Spain

SPANISH property is firmly back in the global limelight. The prestigious New York Times has recently published a piece singing the praises of the emerging marketplace, especially highlighting Barcelona.

The piece notes how the return of influential international investors to Spain in 2014 has helped the market improve dramatically since the crisis era. Prices, of course, rose quite sharply in 2015 and the trend has continued at a steady pace until today. 

The author notes the particular increase in foreign investors, non-Spanish people moving to the country in search of property opportunities and a higher quality of life. In this respect Spain is considered extremely good value for money in comparison with the UK and even Germany. 

In fact the only real difficulty in desirable locations, such as prime neighbourhoods in major cities, is supply. 

More foreigners than ever before are looking for quality purchases, but the construction industry needs time to catch up. 

The New York Times piece also notes the growing number of non-EU investors applying for the Golden Visa programme.

This allows them to gain Spanish residency rights if they invest at least €500,000 in Spanish property.

Chinese buyers are making up the bulk of Golden Visa applicants but there are also sizeable contingents of Turks, Moroccans, Russians and Arabs. 

All of which, the publicity of the article included, bodes extremely well for the Spanish property market in the near future.