Thursday 14 November 2013

Property Sales Increase in the Costa del Sol


Despite the crisis, the desire of foreigners to live on the Costa del Sol has not diminished, but rather the opposite. The President of the Tourist Board and the Council of Malaga, Elijah Bendodo, reported last week that, in the first six months of this year, foreigners bought a total of 3,260 homes in the province of Malaga, which is 33% more than in the same period of 2012 – specifically 812 more, according to the data provided by the General Council of Notaries.

ACP President, Jose Prado, said that the sale of homes on the coast to British buyers grew by 18% in the first half of this year, which is a rate not seen for several years, and is six times more than the increase achieved in the same period last year, which reached 3%.
In the Costa del Sol region property sales have increased by a third in the first half of this year, with Brits and Scandinavians being the most prolific buyers. The area is also particularly popular with Russian, Belgian and French house hunters.

With respect to nationalities, Diario Sur reported that British buyers were still the best foreign clients with regard to the acquisition of property on the Malaga coast, with 630 transactions, well ahead of the 377 purchases made by Swedish buyers. Belgians bought 288 houses on the Costa del Sol, citizens from Norway acquired 281 homes, Russia 251 and France 200.

According to the latest house price index published by real estate portal, idealista.com, the price of existing homes experienced a slight increase during the month of October, rising by 0.7% to stand at 1,768 euros per square metre.

Year-on-year, the price of housing fell by 7.8% in the tenth month of the year, compared to October 2012, when it stood at 1,918 euros per square metre.

Prices rose in seven regions throughout the month of October, and El Economista reported that the number of provinces which maintained their positive rates in the month increased to 24.
Fotocasa’s analysis of recent government data confirms that it’s in coastal areas where house prices have decreased the most. These are also the same areas in which the number of home sales have remained stable recently, or are even increasing.

They reason that it is the increased foreign interest in picking up a cheap property which is heading the sales push. And statistics from Idealista, give additional credence to these results, where asking prices in the same regions have improved for the resale market.

While Britain remains the largest supplier of foreign buyers, the number of properties sold is still down from the highs of the last decade. So it’s very promising to see a near 20 percent increase in British buyers this year.

The recovery of interest from the UK was also reported at the recent ‘A Place in the Sun‘ exhibition (the UK’s leading overseas property show).

Ten percent more visitors attended the exhibition and a visitor survey revealed that the dream of moving to Spain is still the clear cut choice for Brits looking to buy or move abroad (besting France and the USA).
Most were also planning on buying a home within the next 6 months to two years, a time when prices are expected to be at their absolute lowest level.


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