Foreigners buying more homes in Spain than ever before

Although the British are still the foreign nationals that buy most houses in Spain's cities and along its coastline, they are buying less than before. Brexit is beginning to be felt.

According to data from the notaries, the sale of property to foreigners increased by 13.4% in the first half of the year, compared with the same period last year.

Between January and July, foreigners bought 50,087 homes and according to the General Notary Council, and their purchases accounted for 19.4% of the total of all real estate transactions over this period, compared with 20.3% in the first six months of 2016, although it had been increasing steadily since 2007, the start of the recession.

Britons are still the foreigners who buy most property in Spain (13.9% of all the purchases in the first half of the year), but they bought 16.4% fewer houses compared with last year's figures, suggesting that Brexit is beginning to bite.

The next most populous group of buyers are the French (8.8%), followed by the Germans (8.2%), Italians (7.7%), Rumanians (6.9%) and Belgians (6.2%). Other noticeable nations getting on the housing ladder in Spain are Morrocans (5.7%), Chinese (4.7%) or Russians (3.0%). House purchased made by citizens from outside the European Union accounted for 10.6% between January and July this year.

All the autonomous communities recorded increases in the number of house purchases being made by foreigners and only five of them showed increases below the national average (+13.4%): Balearic Islands (+5.3%), Andalucía (+5.4%), Murcia (+5.7%), Canary Islands (+10.1%) and the Valencian Community (+12%).

All the remaining regions recorded increases above the national average, with intermediate rises in Extremadura, Catalonia, Aragón, Madrid and the areas along the Cantabrian coast. The greatest rises in house purchases by foreigners were seen in Castilla-La Mancha (+33.2%), Castilla y León (+39%), Navarra (+43.8%) and La Rioja (+74.8%).

During the first six months of the year, house purchases by foreigners were concentrated primarily along the Mediterranean coast and on the islands, with the greatest number of purchases being recorded in Andalusia (19.4%), Murcia (26.9%), the Valencian Community (35.5%), Balearic Islands (37.7%) and Canary Islands 42.3%). In contrast, fewer than 10% of house purchases in Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon and along the Cantabrian coast were made by foreigners.