British buyers still rule

GOOD news for the Spanish house market as a new report, from leading international property portal Kyero, has re‐vealed that British buyers remain the biggest overseas spenders when it comes to buying property in Spain, three years on from Brexit and despite a 17 per cent fall in enquiries from British buyers last year.

David has not just been tak‐en by the writings of these wonderful humourists, but quill in inky hand, has tried, he says, to emulate their brilliant humour and the delight their work engen‐dered.

Having physically, if not exactly mentally grown up, David has worked in adver‐tising and design, whilst amusing himself and enjoy‐ing annoying his few long‐suffering friends, many ene‐

A Welshman, still pas ‐sionate, despite their rugby team’s current quandary, he has also written, illus‐trated and published a Chil‐dren’s book, ‘Caradog the friendly Welsh Dragon’, a delightfully gentle tale of a friendly Welsh Dragon who, with the help of his Shep‐herd friend, tries to dispel the idea that dragons are fierce and frightening.

Along the way, he en ‐counters a valiant but timo‐rous knight, a bold black‐smith and the even bolder womenfolk of a small Welsh village. Not only a delightful read but an abso‐lute world‐beater. David in‐forms me; at the last count having sold all of 15 copies worldwide!

Since retiring to Arboleas

He has also teamed up with another author, Bernie Albrighton, to spread the word that writing is a won‐derful therapeutic pastime.

Both had been frustrated by their lack of contact and association with other writ‐ers, so taking things into their own hands they start‐ed The Written Word Group for writers of all gen‐res, who currently meet fortnightly on Fridays from 10.00am until 1.00pm at the Hotel Meson in Ar ‐boleas.

David does admit howev‐er that writing tends to be a rather solitary activity, where time evaporates as he enters a world of his own, something he says, to which his long ‐ suffering wife will readily attest.

In an analysis of one of the largest data sets in the industry (consisting of buyers from 194 countries and 154,460 proper‐ties for sale with over 3,000 estate agents) it was found that the British, who have long played a significant role in the Spanish property market, have (just) managed to cling on to their number one spot.

This is despite losing significant ground to German and Dutch buyers since Brexit, but overall the number of interna‐tional property buyers in Spain increased by 80 per cent in 2022 compared to 2019. British buyers continued to make up the largest proportion of overseas property spending in 2022 (12.54 per cent of the total market value).

However, compared to 2019 pre‐Brexit figures, the in‐crease in spending is one of the smallest of all nationalities.