The Costa del Sol has not just welcomed record numbers of tourists this year, but also record numbers of house buyers. Malaga Province is once again one of the most popular relocation destinations for foreign house hunters. The province's housing market is the fastest-growing in terms of property transactions. It is also the fourth-most popular relocation place in Spain.
Home sales in the country grew by 13.9% in the second quarter of this year, with 104,530 home sales, according to the Ministry of Public Works. Seen on a 12-monthly basis, Madrid saw the largest number of house sales with more than 48,000 properties sold, while Malaga Province registered 23,326 property sales, representing an 11.7% year-on-year increase, according to data published by the College of Registrars for Property.
In Barcelona house sales amounted to 34,402 properties, putting the city in second position after Madrid, but coastal Alicante came third, with an annual number of homes sold amounting to 24,976.
Although these figures are very encouraging, the number of property sales in Spain per quarter is still 58% less than the total number of sales recorded for 2006, when more than 251,600 property sales took place in a quarter.
During the second quarter of this year, 99,940 home sales took place in free homes segment of the market, which represents 95.6% of the total. The remaining 4.4.% (4,590 homes) of sales took place in the protected housing market.
Picture is repeated in domestic Holiday Rental Market
Holiday rentals portal HomeAway carried out a study showing Spain's regions are still the most popular choices for domestic tourism, when it comes to summer holidays. Andalucía, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Canaries together accounted for 80% of the enquires recorded by the portal.
Andalucía clocked up 33% of enquiries, making it top dog among holiday rentals in Spain for the summer season this year. Malaga Province saw a 7% increase in holiday rentals, while Jaén, Sevilla and Cordoba saw increases of 92%, 55% and 46% respectively. Granada Province saw a healthy 15% increase in holiday rentals, showing that investing in property at the Costa Tropical is a good long-term choice.
Although the Cadiz-Costa de la Luz saw the greatest domestic demand for holiday rentals, registering 43% of the region's total, the Malaga-Costa del Sol region received a 25% share of domestic tourism, according to the HomeAway study.
Interestingly, El Mundo reported that, looking at the website's study, tourists stayed on average just 4 days in inland areas, while staying for an average of 7 days at the coast, matching the average stay for international travel choices.
This means that buying a holiday rental home at the Costa del Sol, especially in property hot spots like Marbella, is still an excellent long-term investments, not just with regard to house price appreciation but also with regard to consistent holiday rental yields.
Foreign Home Buyers lead the Boom
According to reports in El Economista, home sale transactions undertaken by foreign residents in Spain grew by 17% (17,307) year-on-year for the 16th consecutive quarter. Foreign buyers snapped up 2,517 homes in Malaga and 4,141 in Alicante, not a bad result when compared to 1,470 homes in Barcelona and 1,173 in Madrid.