The sale and purchase of homes by non-resident foreigners in Spain increased by 51.2% in 2021, to 43,827 transactions, according to accumulated data from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma). The Balearic and Canary Islands led the recovery, but Málaga and Alicante were the provinces where foreigners continue to buy more homes. Meanwhile, foreign residents are opting to buy property in large urban centres such as Madrid and Barcelona.
Comparison between 2021 and 2020
Data from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda confirm the recovery of the pace lost in 2020 due to the pandemic and mobility restrictions, although the same trend is repeated for foreign residents, who closed 2021 at 59,168 operations, 38.8% more than the previous year.
The comparison between 2021 and 2020 is marked by the health measures and the uncertainty that determined the behaviour of foreigners, both residents and non-residents. In the year of the pandemic, sales among foreign residents fell by 22.1%, while in the case of non-residents, transactions decreased by 30.2%.
In the pre-pandemic-post-pandemic comparison, the data for the last year reflect an improvement with respect to the performance of the real estate sector in 2019. Thus, sales by non-resident foreigners increased by 5.6% between 2019 and 2021, while this increase was 8% in the case of resident foreigners in the same period of time.
The archipelagos recover activity
The sale and purchase of homes by non-resident foreigners in the Balearic Islands doubled in 2021, after falling by almost 30% in 2020. During the whole of last year, non-resident foreigners closed 4,692 transactions. Meanwhile, in the Canary Islands, non-resident transactions rose by 56.5%, to 4,441 operations.
In the case of foreign residents in the Balearic Islands, sales and purchases grew by 42% in 2021, with 2,292 transactions, and are practically at the same level as in the pre-pandemic period (-0.2%). In the Canary Islands, the sale and purchase of homes by foreign residents is also still below that of 2019, specifically (-9.2%), but it has rebounded by 9% year-on-year.
The map below shows where non-resident foreigners bought the most property in Spain. The darker the colour, the more transactions carried out.
Where do foreigners buy most homes in Spain?
The big markets for foreigners buying property in Spain continue to be the Valencian Community and Andalusia, with the provinces of Alicante and Málaga leading the way. After passing through the worst of the 2020s in the midst of the pandemic, sales and purchases on the Levante coast grew among non-resident foreigners (38.6%) and resident foreigners (41.2%), as well as in Andalusia as a whole: non-resident foreigners (62.6%) and resident foreigners (41.3%). The nationality that was reported to have bought the most property in summer 2021 was German.
Alicante continues to be the main focus of attraction for foreign investment, leading in transactions among non-residents (with more than 13,300 transactions), as well as among residents (almost 6,700 transactions), behind only the provinces of Barcelona (7,303) and Madrid (6,789).
Behind Alicante, among non-resident foreigners is Málaga (9,600 sales and purchases) and the Balearic Islands. Very similar figures are seen in Murcia, with almost 2,500 operations; Girona (2,400); Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2,328) and Las Palmas (2,113).
The map below shows where foreign residents bought the most property in Spain. The darker the colour, the more transactions carried out.
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