The Spanish adage which says a mal tiempo, buena cara – in bad times face held high is applicable right now to the country, which is facing hard times.
Spain was one of the worst hit European Nations in 2008 global recession apart from the Republic of Ireland and Greece. The country hit a down trend which ended up in the complete stalling of the five million housing units and the unemployment percentage rose to frightening levels in 2013 which has now settled down a little by showing positive signs and economy is slowly improving.
Even the housing sales will see an improvement according to BBVA Research (research wing of Spain's second biggest banking group). Investors also have good news as per the Organisation of Economic Development and Co-Operation. Their report shows that there has been a 26 percentage undervaluation of property market.
Even though the property market is dominated by international buyers still, the real estate market of Spain is bound to see an improvement and as per Lucas Fox International, which is a real estate agency there will be a 33 percentage increase in residential sales in 2015. This will pave way to good improvement in the property market which definitely is a strong sign towards recovery. Lucas Fox market has given a report on the national buyers which shows a 6 percentage increase in buying compared to last year amounting to total purchase of £740,300(€950,000). It also says that amongst the buyers in Barcelona 17 percentage were national clients which is good news for the country.
As per Tom Maidment, Partner at Lucas Fox, “The increased market activity by local buyers was the standout trend in 2015. Spanish buyers have been active predominately at mid end of the market, attracted by property prices at an eight year low, a recovering economy and increased lending from Spanish banks.”
He also added, ”For several years the market has been dominated by international buyers and whilst foreign investors still account for the majority of our sales, the number of local buyers is clearly on the rise and we expect this trend to continue apace throughout 2016.”
The reason for the improvement is that the property prices have stabilised a lot. It proceeded with engaging quality and developing interest for prime property on the Costa Del Sol. Lucas Fox saw a noteworthy 91 percentage ascend in the estimation of offers in Marbella, including an amazing £9.75 million (€12.5 million) deal to an American purchaser for property in the selective La Zagaleta region.
There are still some negatives too like one out of five in the working age is still unemployed and the price of properties are still far below compared to the ever high 2008 prices. There is a ray of hope as we saw earlier that the unemployment numbers are reducing and the property market is also experiencing an uptrend which shows that economic recovery is happening in the country and hope this trend will continue in the next two years. Even the business and investors will see a ray of hope which is definitely needed for Spain at this point.
