More Bad News for Spanish Property Market

As if the scandals, demolitions, arrests and repossessions weren’t enough, more bad news for the Spanish property market was published this week in the New York Times.

It appears that the Spanish government have basically shot themselves in the foot if they were hoping that they could kick start some sort of positive promotion of the nation’s real estate landscape in the press! 

They have published some findings and statistics relating to who actually buys property in the nation, and as a result, there is nothing positive that anyone can actually say!

The findings from the Spanish government are from last year when we all know things were slightly less awful than they are now, they show that at the time, it was British buyers propping up the market to the tune of almost 60% of buyers.  Previously it was estimated and intimated by those trying to talk up the market that there was more than a fair mix of Brits, Irish, German, Russian, Scandinavian and even French buyers purchasing real estate in Spain.

If this had been the case, the future for the market might not have looked as dire as it does now.  Unfortunately you see, it was never the case that there was a large percentage of buyers from a diverse mix of nations, rather the Brits made up 57.6% of the buying power in Spain in 2008.  Naturally enough, because the Labour government has annihilated the British economy and British bankers have destroyed the mortgage market in the UK, no Brits can afford nor are they willing to enter the Spanish marketplace today.

Of course the Spanish haven’t helped themselves by overselling, overdeveloping and over-blowing the market - and then demolishing British buyers’ homes.  But all that aside, the fact that the Brits were holding up the market and now they can no longer afford to, what with the weak pound and the strong euro, means that Spain’s property market is basically screwed until the Brits can once again be persuaded to buy in.

In 2008 their numbers had already dropped from 63% in 2007 at the height of the boom to 57.6% - and Britain was not the only nation with dwindling interest in the market in 2008, in fact, only Russia was able to boast a boost in the numbers of their citizens showing an active interest in Spain.  Russian buyers as a percentage rose to 6.4% last year – so perhaps Spain should just pin all their hopes on Russia?