House sales by foreign residents in the Valencian Region rose by 45% in 2009

According to figures published by the Valencian Association of Notaries house sales by foreigners rose by 44.9% compared to the previous year. At the end of last year there were 4,291 house sales by foreigners compared to 2,939 in 2008 the year when the economic crisis in Spain began. The increase in house sales by foreigners also occurred at the same as a drop in demand by foreigners looking to buy property in Spain. Although there were 5,631 house sales to foreigners last year this is 43.9% less than in 2008 when over 10,000 house sales to foreigners were recorded.

Over the last 10 years there had been a sharp increase in foreign buyers, mostly from the United Kingdom and Central Europe. However recent statistics suggest that because of the economic crisis and the falling value of the pound, there has been a sharp down turn in British expat interest in buying property in Spain and in particular the Valencian region.

In fact the number of transactions carried out by foreigners (buying and selling) fell last year from 17,377 in 2008 to 14.136 which is a decrease of 18.6%.

The figures provided by the Valencian Association of Notaries include both private and state subsidised housing (VPO).

One surprising finding is that the number of transactions between foreigners stayed more or less the same in the Valencian region. In 2008 there were 4,398 such transactions rising to 4,244 in 2009.
In the rest of Spain the number of transactions by foreign residents fell by 20.8% in 2009 from 77,273 in 2008 to 61,137 in 2009.