Spanish property more popular than french, says mortgage firm

TheMoveChannel.com has long seen demand for property in Spain rank higher than France, with the former attracting for 1 in 10 enquiries on the site last month, compared to the latter’s 6.81 per cent. Now, though, other overseas property companies are witnessing the same preference among investors.

According to Conti, Spain accounted for 44 per cent of enquiries in May, overtaking France, which accounted for 37 per cent of enquiries, for the first time in a year.

With banks such as UBS predicting that Spanish property prices have another eight per cent to go before bottoming out, buyers are taking the opportunity to snap up bargains from some very motivated vendors.

According to data from the General Council of Notaries, the number of foreign and non-resident buyers of Spanish property increased by 28.4 per last year, compared with 2011, and the British are the biggest buying group.

Clare Nessling, Director at Conti, says: “There’s no denying that the country’s financial and economic woes have left a huge glut of new and repossessed properties sitting empty and struggling to sell, but some bargain basement prices are turning heads, particularly those of the British, and there may never be a better time to buy a Spanish home.

“Mortgage availability, unsurprisingly, isn’t as good as it was a few years ago, but there are still lots of opportunities, especially if you have a healthy deposit to put down. It’s generally possible to borrow up to around 65-70 per cent of the value of the property, and rates currently start from just 3.2 per cent.”

The positive shift towards Spain follows efforts from regional estate agents and tourism boards to improve Spain’s tarnished image. Increasing foreign investment, it is hoped, will eventually revive the country’s property market, with a new law granting automatic residency to non-EU nationals buying property worth at least €500,000 expect to boost buyer demand further.