The Valencian community, Andalusia and Catalonia are the destinations that foreigners prefer to visit more often.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, housing sales to foreigners fell by 24.2% year-on-year, with 77,500 transactions, according to notaries. British (12.6%), Moroccans (8.3%), French (8.3%) and Germans (7.7%) bought a lot of houses due to the overall decline in 2020.
Once again, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and Catalonia were the most preferred destinations for foreigners. The Balearic and Canary Islands experienced the biggest decline in sales in Spain.
Foreigners are still confident about buying a house in Spain to live in or as a second home, despite the global medical and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has restricted the movement of millions of people to other countries, and restrictions within Spain.
Housing sales and purchases were no exception, and the overall decline in the number of transactions across Spain by 14.5%, with 470,749 transactions, for the first time since 2016 below half a million, also led to the biggest drop in housing purchases by foreigners. According to notary statistics, this figure reached 24.2% year-on-year and amounted to 77,492 transactions.
Despite the upturn in the second half of the year, compared to the slowdown in most of the first half of the year (39% in the off-season), this is the lowest absolute figures recorded since 2015. It has only been five years since the second half of the year was better than the first in terms of the total number of transactions.
Since the previous economic crisis in 2012, the percentage of transactions by foreigners (15.1 %) has not yet fallen to such a low value, but 2020 was closed at the level of 16.5% of the total number of transactions, and below the average between 2012 and 2019 (18.7%), as noted by notaries.
By nationality, the foreigners who bought a lot of houses in 2020 were again British, with 12.6% of total transactions by foreigners (9,783) in 2020, followed by Moroccans (9.7% and 7,526 transactions), French (8.3% and 6,470 transactions) and Germans (7.7% and 6,002 transactions). Also, more than 5% of foreign transactions are accounted for by Romanians (7.4% and 5,752 transactions), Italians (6.3% and 4,866 transactions) and Belgians (5.9% and 4,554 transactions). These seven nationalities account for almost 50% (48.2% exactly) of sales and purchases made by foreigners in 2020.