Spain and its high-spending international buyers

International buyers interest goes up when prices fall

Since 2008 international buyers have more than doubled in Spain (from 34,704 transactions in 2008 to around 76,680 in 2015), while prices have halved ! You can see this easily with the two graphs below, which show the strong correlation between both phenomenon.

Source : http://www.notariado.org/liferay/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=cfbcf9e3-1100-4b8a-a0ae-408d05300ce8&groupId=2289837

Now, what’s interesting to see behind that, is what the international buyers have been buying in Spain.

More than 80% of the luxury flats in Barcelona are purchased by international buyers

This sounds crazy, but according to an article published by Idealista on April 18, an impressive 83% of the properties sold for more than 950,000 euros in 2015 were sold to foreign buyers, which reveals that Spanish buyers only represented 17% on that luxury property market of Catalunya’s capital city.

So, why are international buyers so much in love with the Ciudad Condal (old name for the city of Barcelona, originating from its past when it was the seat of the Count of Barcelona) ?

Spain : very affordable per square meter compared to the UK and France

At ListGlobally we have several luxury agencies from Barcelona, including Lucas Fox International Properties, but we know that’s not what the market of foreign buyers is about. We have over 630 client agencies in Spain. Barcelona luxury market is just as Spanish real estate market : it’s cheap per square meter compared to other European markets such as the UK or France. For example, the average price paid per square meter in Spain by non-resident international buyers is at 1,806€.A square meter in Barcelona costs 3,259€ As a comparison, one square meter of property in Paris costs around 8,000€, and it costs more than 15,126€ in London most expensive neighborhood, Kensington and Chelsea.

Thanks for reading my latest article. For more information about how to connect you international property buyers simply, click here:  http://www.listglobally.com/advertise-to-the-world/ or email me at reiser@listglobally.com