How many properties do the UK buy from Brexit in Spain?

The moment of truth for the highly controversial Brexit is approaching. The latest news points to the Brussels-London agreement for a friendly UK exit from the EU. Countries have begun to examine the effects this will have. In Spain the immobilization sector is calm following information provided by the APCE (Association of Developer Builders of Spain) showing how small the UK was last year's total property transactions. مهنة حرة 

Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, President, explains that, from a total of 513,000 sales transactions that took place between April 2017 and April 2018, the British acquired a total of 8,500 units in Spain, according to APCE data, last year. In addition, the association explains that sales were at 10,000 properties prior to the referendum. The confirmation of Brexit therefore meant only a reduction of 1,500 properties.

APCE considers, after analyzing the data, that serious damage would have been caused if the British did not acquire properties once the UK exits were confirmed, but this is "impossible." The worst-case scenario shows a 50% decline in British sales. A scenario that does not concern the immobilizing sector either because it still represents a very small percentage of total operations.

"Brexit will not be a sectoral but a provincial problem," Via Celere's former CEO said at an APCE press conference to explain the industry's future. The current chairman of the Via Agora Group pointed out that the departure of Great Britain from the EU could have a major impact on autonomous communities such as Valencia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.

In this not very alarming speech, APCE also underlines additional data showing the sector's optimism for Brexit, which is the percentage of property acquisitions made by foreigners during the previous fiscal year (April-April). This interval has risen by 0.8%. In particular, according to the association figures, it went from 15.8 percent to 16.6 percent. Growth occurred in the same year that British transactions fell, which is why Brexit was optimistic of the employers.

The weight of the British was therefore 13.79 percent without going any further, marking historic lows and far from 37 percent in 2008. In recent years the French have also lost ground (7.5% of operations compared to 10% in 2014), the Germans (6.89% of operations are lowest since 2008) and the Italians (4.91 percent far from 5.77 percent in 2017).

While buyers from Old Continent's major economic powers are losing momentum, other nationalities, such as Moroccans, Romanians and Chinese, are records breaking or coming closer to what they had before the crisis.

For example, for the first three months of the year, Moroccans account for 6.14% of operations, making them the fourth most active nationality in purchasing properties in Spain. On the other hand, they were in eighth position at the end of last year. It's their best record since 2008, although it's the best year since 2007 in absolute numbers. They acquired 1,021 properties in Spain throughout 2008, much the same as in the first quarter of the current year.

The dream of many is to buy a villa with a large garden: to have ample space at home and to enjoy outdoor activities, to grill with friends or to enjoy the friendship of a pet.