Figures from Spain's College of Registrars indicate that 35.1% of homes sold in the Balearics in the third quarter of this year were bought by non-Spaniards.
The national average for foreign purchases was 14.4%. The 35.1% in the Balearics was the highest percentage in the country, followed by the Canaries (30.6%), Valencia (26.5%) and Murcia (20.2%). At the other end of the table, just 1.6% of sales in Galicia were to foreign buyers.
The dean of the College of Registrars of the Balearic Islands, José Luis Jiménez-Herrera, says that the good climate, connectivity and legal certainty are some of the main attractions for buying properties in the Balearics as second residences or as investments.
Foreign buying has increased by more than four per cent over the past year. However, there are questions about the impact of inflation and recession. Jiménez-Herrera believes that over the winter there will be a drop in sales but that these will pick up again next summer.
He feels that as prices of properties being bought by foreigners are generally high, this is having a knock-on effect and leading to the prices of more modest homes to increase.
10 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
There's already some big barriers to "speculative" property flipping. For example, if you sell it in less than 10 years, capital gains taxes are much higher. If you're over 65, and you've owned it for 10 years or more, you pay no capital gains. The purpose is to support long term ownership, and make "house flipping" undesirable, to bring some stability to the housing market, and help keep prices affordable. It's imperfect, but in a highly prized housing market like Mallorca, it helps keep it from going astronomical & boom and bust every few years. All this talk of stopping foreign purchases (also the anti-tourism rhetoric) is definitely political, mainly promoted by the rather extremist Balearic "nationalist" party, Més (a coalition partner). Making it happen will require breaking some important baseline rules, and pissing off some very powerful entities, some of a size an stature that dwarfs some extremist little political party with a minor role in the current government. We shall see.
There is an election cycle in play, beibg held in May, why do think all the roads, roundabouts, graffiti is being cleared, why do you think they are giving free bus transport. It's notmal to blame foreigners, its straight out of the Marxist playbook, just ask Adolf. banning foreigners from buying would mean Spain would need to leave the EU, the looney lefty vote hunters are seeking a special exemption for the Balearics, Menora does not want to be include though, The Canarias have said absolutely no. The loonely left in Mallorca complain about population increasing my 300k every 12 years, but forget to mention that the largest foreign population that out numbers all Brits, Germans and Scandinavians combined is the islands Moroccan and Algerian population. Not entirely sure how many frontline gated community properties they are buying
Zoltan TeglasOk, maybe you could explain more in detail what you meant, as you only divided it into two groups in your initial comment.
Ulla JacksonNo I did not say that, so read it again.
Zoltan TeglasZoltan, are you saying that you need to be a resident or it's speculation? That is a ridiculous assumption. You can own a house which is not used all the time, BUT it does NOT necessarily mean it's speculation. Your world seems rather simple, either white or black, shades are not possible.
Ulla JacksonBits are not foreigners - everyone else is!
Whether the buyers are 'foreign' or not is irrelevant. The important thing is are they residents who've bought the properties to live in, or non residents who've bought them for speculation. There's a big difference.
Morgan WilliamsSince when is Brits classed as not being foreigners?
PerOr Brits (unlikely)
So, 64.9 were bought by Spanish.....