In one year house sales to foreigners drops by 50%

According to figures provided by the Ministry of Housing in collaboration with the Association of Estate Agents and Promoters for the province of Alicante (Provia), house and flat sales have dropped by half since 2007. Between January and March there were 2,457 transactions involving foreigners already resident in Spain and another 119 transactions involving non resident foreigners. These figures are almost exactly 50% less than those registered for the same period in 2007 when 5,352 transactions were recorded.

The General Secretary of Provia, Jesualdo Ros, has explained that the uncertainty in the Spanish market is affecting prospective buyers from abroad. Furthermore other factors have influenced this figure such as the economic conditions in the foreign buyer’s country and the disappearance of property speculators. Other factors such as the drop in low cost flights to the potential buyer’s country can also have repercussions on the number of house sales to foreigners according to Ros.

Ros also claimed that foreign media coverage of legal problems faced by foreign property buyers in the Costa Blanca (in his view sensationalist and inaccurate) this year has also had an adverse effect on house sales.