A fresh sign of the sheer numbers of people from outside Spain snapping up homes in the country should alert those perusing sites like One Marbella for property for sale in San Pedro and other areas in and around Marbella. Statistics for 2014 from the Association of Registrars have revealed that 13% of the homes acquired in Spain last year went to foreign buyers.
That is the sixth increase in as many years, marking a significant rise on the 4.2% seen in 2009. 5.2% of the Spanish homes that foreigners purchased last year sold for €500,000 or more, enabling a residence permit to be obtained by their new owners. The equivalent figure the year before was 4.7%. 55.1% of the transactions were by EU citizens, with those outside the EU accounting for 44.8% – a slight increase on the 42.1% observed the year before.
Furthermore, 84.7% of the homes sold last year went to families, compared to 78% in 2013, according to El Economista. A mere 15.2% of transactions were accounted for by companies in 2014, whereas the year before, they had been responsible for 21.9% of home purchases. This should give plenty of reason for budding private buyers of property for sale in San Pedro and elsewhere in the country to fancy their chances of completing a purchase.
The Registars’ analysis also gave an insight into the average home size that is being sought by buyers, with medium or medium-to-large homes being preferred. Whereas only 3.64% of the transactions were for homes measuring less than 40 square metres, a much higher 17.2% of sales were of properties between 40 and 60 square metres in size. 29.1% of transactions were for homes of 60 to 80 metres, which meant that half of all sales were accounted for by homes that were larger than 80 square metres.
Not only have more people from outside Spain been buying properties in the country, but they have also been spending more money as tourists, it has been revealed. In the first three months of the year, international tourists spent €10,754 million, which is 7% up on the corresponding period of 2014. The data comes from the most recent Egatur survey on tourist expenditure, released by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.