According to the statistics of the real Estate Registry of the Association of Real Estate Registrars of Spain, from January to June 2022, more than 328,000 residential units were registered on the Spanish real estate market. Such a volume of transactions on the market has not been observed since the beginning of 2008.
In quarterly terms, both quarters of 2022 performed well, however, it was the first one that became the leader. In the first three months of this year, about 164,300 real estate transactions were concluded on the market, and from April to June — just over 163,900 transactions.
One of the reasons for the record sales of housing in the Spanish market is the incredibly high interest in it from a variety of foreign buyers and investors. The volume of sales of residential real estate to foreigners has reached a historic high, becoming the result of extremely active growth of the local market in 2020-21.
Noting the extremely high popularity of Spanish real estate among international buyers after the end of the acute phase of COVID-19, market experts began to keep a more detailed account of specific nationalities that make up the total international demand. At the moment, the share of foreign buyers in the market has already exceeded 13%.
The easing of quarantine restrictions in Q3 2021 within the country, as well as the subsequent normalization of entry conditions to Spain for foreign citizens, became the starting point for the growth of the number of foreigners in the market. Since the beginning of July 2021, the number of transactions for the purchase of residential real estate by foreigners has not fallen below 16,000 transactions.
In the first two quarters of 2022, the average number of transactions made by foreigners did not fall below 20,000. Previously, the market has not demonstrated such a thing. From January to March, 21,638 residential properties were purchased, and from April to June — 24,029 properties. The segment has an extremely high growth trend and experts expect new records by the end of this year.
The closest competitor to the last two years is 2018. Then the market managed to record 65,500 transactions in 12 months, and the average quarterly figure was at the level of 16,380 residential properties sold. However, neither before nor after did the market demonstrate such a level.