Which nationalities are most active in the Spanish property market?

THE Statistical Information Centre of Notaries in Spain has recently released its latest report on the activity of foreign buyers in the country’s property market for 2017.

Which nationalities are the most proactive? Are they resident in Spain? Where are the most popular areas to buy?  All will be revealed…

The year 2017 was the best for property purchases since the economic crisis began to grip Spain in 2008, and both Spanish nationals and foreign buyers are now very active in the market.

During last year, there were 513,814 property transactions recorded, representing a 17 per cent growth against 2016.  Foreign buyers accounted for 100,095 of those and showed a year-on-year acceleration of 14.2 per cent.

For countries within the European Union (EU), during the second half of 2017, the most active nationalities were British (14 per cent of buyers), French (8.6), Germans (8.2), Romanians (6.9), Italians (6.8), Belgians (6) and the Swedish (5.3).

The proportion of purchases from people outside of the EU was also high, with the Moroccans (5.5 per cent), Chinese (4.9) and the Russians (3).

Looking at the increases between 2016 and 2017, there are some surprising inclusions in the top ten which sees Moroccans recording a 36 per cent growth in purchases during that period.  They are followed by Ecuadorians (33), Romanians (31), Portuguese (30), and Americans (27).

The only country that showed a decrease in their property purchasing was the United Kingdom, but that was only for the first half of 2017 before seeing an improvement in the second.

The Valencian Community leads the way with the amount of foreign transactions (28 per cent), with Andalusia in second (18) and Catalonia – despite the political instability – (15).