Dilip Kuner
SPAIN’S tourism hotspots and quiet inland areas are leading a recovery from a COVID-19 plunge in property sales.
While the real estate market was paralysed for much of 2020, the final quarter so a bounce-back in transactions, with 10% involving foreign buyers, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE).
These figures showed that the highest growth levels were mainly coastal and countryside regions with people seeking more open space.
By contrast,inland cities – Madrid excepted – suffered the most. INE stats showed that by province property sales grew most in Alicante, Malaga, Almeria, Guadalajara and Girona.
The holiday regions of the Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol and the Costa Brava were especially popular.
Overall, real estate transactions in Spain grew during the last quarter of 2020, with 113,799 sales, up 11.35% on the previous quarter. These were still down on the number of sales pre the coronavirus pandemic.
The most significant increases in Spanish regions were recorded in Galicia (31.00%), Castile and Leon (19.01%) and Cantabria (16.26%), while the greatest number of sales were recorded in Andalucia, (22,770), Catalonia and the Costa Brava (17,513 sales), Valencia (16,404) and the Community of Madrid (15,304).
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When it came to international buyers, the Balearics led the way, with a third (32.65%) of all transactions in the last quarter of 2020 accounted for by foreigners.
Next most popular for international buyers was the Canary Islands (22.54%)and then Valencia n with 21.68% and Murcia (19.35%).
British buyers maintained their position as the biggest sector amongst international buyers, followed by French and German expats.
