Spanish property sales continue climb

Sunset in Marbella Photo: HernanPC

Spanish property sales are continuing to climb, as confidence builds in the slowly recovering property sector.

Knight Frank’s new associate office, Diana Morales Properties, reveals in its new Marbella Market Insight report that the area has seen transactions leap by almost 90 per cent in the past six years.

According to the report, the country's economy is improving, while the banking system has stabilised and mortgage lending is also on the up. With a typical lending rate falling from 4.21 per cent to 3.29 per cent during last year, optimism among buyers is also spreading.

Domestic buyers did not return last year, but Marbella enjoyed strong demand from an increasingly diverse group of nationalities, including those from Scandinavia, Benelux, France and Morocco. Combined with the spending power of Brits, boosted by the weak euro, and Marbella, together with Estepona and Benahavis, saw property sales rise 27.7 per cent last year.

Marbella, though, has emerged as the strongest market of all three, with sales up 89 per cent between 2008 and 2014, according to the country's Ministry of Public Works.

The figures highlight a growing trend among overseas buyers in various popular hotspots.

SpainBuyingGuide.com says that British buyers, in particular, are leading a charge back to the sunny Costas.

"Statistics from the widely recognised TINSA index in Spain show that average property prices in the Mediterranean coastal areas, typically tourist resorts where foreigners buy, are up since the end of 2014," comments Elaine Ferguson, Head of the Spain Buying Guide Resource Centre. "A feeling of not wanting to miss the boat before prices begin rising steadily is evident when we speak to people, especially with sterling remaining strong – a trend that could Change in the future/

"Our experience from the recent A Place in the Sun Live exhibition supports this, as our SpainBuyingGuide.com stand attracted record numbers of people. Meanwhile, business at our office in the Costa del Sol, which helps house-hunters on the ground there, is snowballing, as this month it celebrates its first anniversary."