The Spanish real estate market continues to recover after a long stagnation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to reach heights not seen since the 2008 crisis. Last year, 655,460 residential properties were sold, which is 39% more than in 2020. This is the highest figure since 2007, when the national real estate fever came to an end and almost 790,000 houses were sold, according to the records of the General Council of Notaries.
The increase in purchases by foreign buyers plays an important role in the revival of the sector. Last year, they made more transactions than ever before. In 2021, overseas citizens purchased 111,743 properties in Spain, which is 44% more than in the previous year. The share of contracts concluded with foreigners amounted to 17% of the total number of purchases.
These 111,743 transactions registered with a notary broke the previous record in 2018 – 103,677 transactions. They also doubled the level of a decade ago (50,314 purchases in 2012) and tripled the level reached in the first year after the collapse in the real estate sector (34,712 purchases in 2008).
Experts note that part of the rapid growth in purchases of Spanish real estate by foreigners can be explained by the high level of deferred demand, which was paralyzed at the beginning of the pandemic and activated last year when the country's economy began to recover.
The number of purchases of Spanish real estate by foreign citizens increased in the second half of 2021. From November to December, there were almost 64,000 transactions. Thus, it became the best half-year in the history of home sales and purchases in the country.