Who buys the most expensive real estate in Spain?

Spainrecorded a 26.3% decline in 2020 compared to 2019, dropping to 46,303, far from the all-time high of 65,416 reached in 2018. Specifically, the drop from the record two years ago is 30%. But who buys the most expensive propertiesreal estateIn Spain?

Report published by the Union of Real Estate Agents (API) and FIABCI Spain

, states that the figure for 2020 is close to levels similar to 2014 and significantly higher than the years of the previous crisis. Despite the double-digit year-on-year decline, in relation to the total number of home purchase transactions executed by foreigners in Spain, accounts for 11.32%, a slight decrease of 1.13 percentage points compared to the previous year, maintaining the downward trend of recent years, after peaking at 13.25% in 2016.“Despite this decline, given the special circumstances of the pandemic, these figures represent a very significant indicator of foreign demand.”,” the study emphasizes.

Autonomous communities with the most purchases

housing by foreigners for 2020 include the Valencian Community (13,493),Andalusia(9443),Catalonia(7748) and, down the list,Canary Islands(3,841), Balearic Islands (3,146),Madrid(2761) иMurcia(2,617), the rest being below 1,000 annual purchases.

All of Spain's autonomous regions recorded sharp annual declines, with double-digit rates in all cases.

Foreigners whoboughtmost of allhousesin Spain in 2020

The British accounted for 13.05% of the total, followed by the French (8.16%), Germans (7.75%), Moroccans (6.74%), Belgians (6.39%), Romanians (5.53%), Italians (5.08%), Swedes (4.63%), Dutch (3.32%) and Chinese (3.08%).

According to the survey, the average house purchase price of foreigners amounted to 1,791 euros per m2, with an annual increase of 3.6%, continuing the upward trend of previous years. The average price by nationality was led by Swedes (€5,322 per m2), Germans (€4,668) and Norwegians (€4,662). In terms of areaapartments, 35.9% were greater than 100 m2, 20.26% were between 80 and 100 m2, 24.7% were between 60 and 80 m2, 14.83% were between 40 and 60 m2 and 4.32% were less than 40 m2.

17.8% decrease in the number of mortgages taken out by foreigners

In addition, the number of mortgages taken out by foreigners in Spain amounted to 19,177, a decrease of 17.8% compared to 2019, the year, inwhichwas reached the highest in historical data (23,342 mortgages). This number of mortgages represents 5.63% of the total, which indicates a much lower participation in the total volume of home purchases (11.32%), indicating a lower need for foreigners to finance when buying a home in Spain.

The highest average mortgage amounts by nationality were for Germans (€245,775), Swedes (€229,907), Dutch (€191,015), British (€190,644), French (€181,107) and Norwegians (€174,815).