International buyers are forming a larger and larger part of the market for the purchase and sale of housing in the most touristic areas of Spain. The increasing strength of the market for second homes makes locations such as the Costa Brava, Ibiza and the Costa del Sol a strong attraction for foreign buyers of medium-high and high profile, which increased by 51% in 2018 according to the real estate agency specialising in the luxury residential market in Spain, Lucas Fox.
There has also been a growth of 88% in the value of real estate sales in these areas, where a large majority of buyers were expats (86%), mainly from France, Scandinavian countries and, despite the potential obstacles posed by Brexit, the United Kingdom.
The average price of the homes sold by the real estate company Lucas Fox in these coastal areas has increased by 24%, from an average of 951,000 euro in 2017 to 1.1 million euro in 2018. The official figures provided by the National Institute for Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística or INE) generally reflect these trends.
By location, according to official data, transactions in the Costa Brava have grown by 5% compared with 2017, with an average of 918 sales per month. Sales of newly built homes have skyrocketed in this coveted enclave of Catalonia: 18% more in 2018 than in 2017, while in Spain as a whole sales of homes to expats have risen 7.6% on last year.
In the province of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, sales have increased by 5% in comparison with 2017, with an average of more than 2,700 transactions a month. The number of sales of new builds has also increased here: by 7%, representing 19% of the total number of transactions in 2018, a slightly higher proportion than in the previous year.
After years of sustained growth, the Balearic Islands recorded a slight decrease in sales transactions in 2018, 3% less than in 2017, with an average of 1,286 sales each month. The number of new home sales transactions has remained stable compared with the same period in 2017 at 0.9%.
"What we've taken from 2019 is positive for the Ibiza real estate market, which got off to a good start in 2018 with sales to German, French and Danish buyers but experienced a relative slowdown in the last quarter of last year," explains the CEO of Lucas Fox, Rod Jamieson.
"There are a number of new construction projects underway that should enter the market during the year and that will generate a good supply of properties, which gives the advantage of allowing people to buy high quality homes without legal problems linked to the recent law that prevents new construction properties from being able to obtain tourist licenses within five years of construction.”
