Americans have become one of the most active categories of real estate buyers in the Spanish housing market. They especially love new buildings and holiday resorts. Mark Shtyuklin, a real estate market analyst from Barcelona, told The Wall Street Journal that according to Spanish notaries, only in the first half of 2022, sales of residential real estate to Americans increased by 76% year-on-year.
According to this indicator, this is the best result in the history of observations. Shtyuklin also reveals which regions of the country US citizens choose in the first place. We are talking about Andalusia and its cities, such as Marbella, Malaga and Seville.
Market participants have already noted a significant increase in American buyers. For example, Sean Woolley, CEO of Cloud Nine Spain, points out that previously Americans have never been in the field of view of their company, but now they account for 25% of sales.
Alejandra Vanoli, CEO of VIVA Sotheby's International Realty in Spain, also pointed out that today Americans have become the «No. 1 client» for her agency. In the elite housing market in the capital of Spain, Madrid, they have completely replaced Latin American buyers.
By the way, one example of such wealthy buyers of luxury housing in Spain is Ron Hale, founder and CEO of Natural Tone Organic Skincare. When asked why he left Florida and moved to Marbella, Hale replied in a light way: «…because of the food, golf and all this local flavor".
One of the important factors is the availability of regular direct flights between the United States and Spain, allowing Americans to travel easily and unhindered between the two countries. For the same reason, Madrid became very popular almost immediately — the central transport hub of the country, which is what the capital should be.
But a much more important factor for Americans was the state of the dollar, its ratio to the euro, as well as the difficult situation in the US residential real estate market. The Spanish offer is richer, more colorful, cheaper and more comfortable.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the Spanish real estate market is experiencing a period of record price growth. Nevertheless, the country is still far from the peaks reached before the 2008-09 crisis. Spain is still recovering and the offers of the local residential market look like a bargain.
Adding at the same time that at least this is true if we are talking about large cities. For example, the new Madrid quarter of La Latina in the Centro district showed an 8% increase in prices for the year to the end of 2022, which became possible thanks to a large offer of new housing. At the same time, prices in Madrid as a whole are still 12.3% lower than the peaks of 2008.
Another example of a noticeable increase in demand and prices is Palma de Mallorca. It houses some of the most expensive residential real estate in the country. But there is a buyer for these offers — residents of Newark, New Jersey. All thanks to seasonal direct flights between this American city and the Spanish Mediterranean port. However, there are cities that, even without the support of direct flights from the United States, enjoy growing American demand. For example, Valencia.