PROPERTY G U I D E Currencies Direct • Let’s talk currency
BANG FOR YOUR BRICKS: Prices remain well below the 2007 peak making now an ideal time to buy.
House about that By Matt Ford
T
HE Spanish property market is well and truly on the road to recovery. And the upswing is backed by a slew of recently-published data. The Spanish Land Registrars’ Association has confirmed prices soared by 9.39 per cent on average in the first quarter of 2018, while the Spanish government’s official data shows that valuations shot up by 2.7 per cent. A March index from the Association of Spanish Notaries increased by 0.4 per cent and April figures from valuations firm Tinsa rose by 5.4 per cent. And registrars’ statistics demonstrate that house prices have climbed by 26 per cent since the low point of December 2014, although they remain 18 per cent down compared to the height of the construction boom in 2007. The Tinsa data also shows prices in Spain’s major cities displayed year-on-year growth of 8.7
Market recovery goes on per cent, those in the Balearics 5.6 per cent and on the Mediterranean coast 0.3 per cent. Mark Srucklin of Spanish Property Insight said: “These national indices don’t tell us anything about local markets, but they do give us some idea of where we are in the property market cycle. Spanish house prices are back in positive territory, whichever index you choose.” And holiday homes are also
back on the march, with British buyers leading the way as Brexit fears ease. Speaking exclusively with Euro Weekly News, Taylor Wimpey Espana’s Sales and Marketing Director Marc Pritchard used the Costa del Sol as an example. “The Costa del Sol holiday home market has provided scope for cautious optimism over the coming months. Prices
there have risen by 9.3 per cent so far in 2018, but there are still good prices to be had compared with 2007, which many buyers find encouraging,” he said. “Foreign buyers in the Costa del Sol are currently running at 13.8 per cent, with British buyers being the largest group. Together, Brits account for 15 per cent of total sales at present. While British interest wavered in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum, demand has grown again over the past year.” He added: “Of course nothing is certain in this day and age, but it seems that buyers may have already accounted for Brexit and moved on - in much the same way that the financial markets nowadays often price in expected mergers in advance, so when they actually happen their impact is limited. We anticipate this could be the same with the UK’s departure from the EU; essentially, the Costa del Sol won’t see much of a change from its current trajectory of increasing sales to British buyers.”