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Buying a Property in Spain?
Spain is the world's top tourist destination
attracting more than 50 million visitors a year. If you find out where
they're going and buy a property there you won't go too far wrong. If you're
buying solely for investment purposes it's sensible to purchase a property
with good letting potential - i.e. near the sea, close to local amenities
and an international airport and with either a private or communal swimming
pool. The Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca are two of the most popular tourist
spots and consequently are prime investment areas. Property prices are
relatively high in both areas but because there's such a huge demand for
housing on both Costas you can be fairly sure that if you invest there
you'll be sitting on a goldmine in the long term.
If you're intending to buy property in Spain
mainly for investment purposes you may deterred by constant gloomy
predictions about an imminent price crash that will leave the country's
housing industry in a state of crisis. These black forecasts have been
around for some time but fortunately for Spanish property owners the bubble
hasn't burst yet and experts now believe prices are likely to stabilise
rather than plummet.
We may not see the staggering price rises
that Spain's property market has experienced over the last 20 years but
house prices look set to continue rising for the foreseeable future,
especially in the popular coastal areas.
Property prices leapt by a mind-boggling 284%
between 1987 and 2002 and have gone up by an average of nearly 100% over the
last decade. Many experts forecast a serious downturn in the Spanish housing
market with the introduction of the Euro in January 2002. In the months
leading up to the Euro's debut there was a mad scramble by foreign investors
keen to spend their black pesetas on Spanish property. But 2002 came and
went without any slump in the market - in fact prices have continued to rise
at the rate of around 15-20% per year in many tourist areas.
Disillusionment with the Stock Market and an
ever-increasing demand from foreign buyers wanting to escape the cold climes
of northern Europe have kept Spain's property market extremely buoyant and
there seems little sign of that changing in the foreseeable future. Experts
now say prices along the Costas will continue to rise albeit at a less
dramatic pace.
It's important to remember that the housing
market along the Costas works in a completely different way than inland
Spain. You only have to look at the feverish construction activity taking
place along all the most popular coastal stretches to see that foreign
demand for those dream homes in the sun is as strong as ever. So that while
prices may stagnate or even drop slightly in the non-tourist areas, they're
unlikely to do so if you buy anywhere near a tourist resort. |
