Sales of Spanish Properties out-perform 2007

Statistics for the first half of 2014 reveal not only that the number of house sale transactions undertaken by non-residents, meaning foreign investors, actually exceeded 2007, the year the housing market in Spain peaked. Things came to a spectacular crash at the beginning of 2008 though. Residential tourism, people who visit their holiday homes in Marbella or other Costa del Sol resorts for example, is also on the rise.

Elias Bendodo, the president of the Costa del Sol Tourist Board, and José Prado of the Association of Constructors and Developers of Malaga, confirmed their report shows a total of 4,739 properties were purchased by foreigners in the Malaga Province between January and June 2014, a huge increase on the 3,506 homes that were sold to foreign buyers in the first 6 months of 2007 and a whopping 45% increase on the same period in 2013.

The Living Costa del Sol Project clearly works

Designed to reduce the number of unsold homes in the Malaga Province and Andalusia as a whole, the Tourist Board and Constructors' Association are encouraged to believe their Living Costa del Sol project works and they will continue to pursue this line of promotion.

According to Elias Bendodo, the Malaga Province has seen the second highest number of property sales to foreign buyers in Spain (after Alicante) and he described the state of residential tourism on the Costa del Sol as "excellent", confirming that the Costa del Sol has reached a "real recovery" now.

Improving British and Scandinavian Markets

Citing Britain and Scandinavia as particularly strong markets, José Prado said that statistics show one out of every two homes sold in the Malaga Province is sold to a foreign buyer.

The domestic market, however, is far from recovery, with demand from Spanish house buyers lagging wildly behind. As no immediate recovery is envisaged - the labour market is still in the doldrums - the Costa del Sol's estate agents continue to market their listed properties to foreign buyers instead.

Burst Bubbles

Before the European housing market took a nose-dive of unprecedented proportions in 2007, constructors and developers in Andalusia sold a total of 30,665 at the Costa del Sol. Only 5,095 of these were sold to foreign house buyers.

In 2014, the picture is rather different. Developers and constructors sold 6,389 homes to the domestic market and 4,739 to international buyers.

However, within the world-wide market there have also been a few burst bubbles of late - Russian buyers were wooed until a new housing market boomed, only to slow down to near stand-still, when Vladimir Putin decreed that his fellow countrymen could no longer take capital out of the country and said "No" to certain European products, including real estate. Potential buyers who had looked forward to buying a holiday home in Marbella could not longer do so and those who had started the purchasing process suddenly found they could no longer proceed to make payments.

Benelux and Scandinavian Buyers are coming to Rescue

The burst Russian bubble could well have turned 2014 into another year of sluggish sales at the Costa del Sol, but increasingly buyers from Benelux and Scandinavian countries are emerging, snapping up Costa del Sol bargains left, right and centre. This new trend has been instrumental in producing the first "real recovery" in the housing market and in the residential tourism sector as well.
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With the British employment sector doing better and UK house prices being strong for yet another year, UK buyers are also more likely to continue their spending spree at the Costa del Sol and in the rest of Andalusia.

Although homes in Marbella are more expensive than in other parts along the Costa del Sol, the fact that the city's luxurious homes held their prices far better than other parts of Spain should be a convincing argument for potential buyers currently still undecided.

The year-end results, due to be published in January 2015, will show, if the positive trend made 2014 into the year when the Malaga Province's housing market finally turned a corner and entered into a phase of sustainable recovery.