Buyers looking for cheap real estate in Europe are still picking Spain

Photo credit: R Duran

Buyers looking for cheap real estate in Europe are still picking, according to the latest sales figures.

The Ministry of Public Transactions revealed that sales of Spanish property have jumped by 24.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. This year-on-year rise is only matched by the repeated annual reductions in prices that have plagued the country’s market for the past year.

Indeed, figures from the National Statistics Institute have found that property prices in Spain have dropped consistently for the last 14 quarters in a row, says Kyero, as market values drop and asking prices are then subsequently reduced by agents.

But amazing,this tactic seems to be working.

24.7 per cent is a significant increase in sales, and if these low prices continue to attract more foreign buyers, developers in Spain can have some hope at the end of 2011.

Marc Pritchard Sales and Marketing Director of Taylor Wimpey España, comments,

"The increase in property sales to foreigners in the last quarter of 2011 shows that many buyers have been discerning enough to strike while the iron is hot and purchase properties that are well priced and in excellent locations. With this in mind, the Holiday Lettings' Insight Report for 2011 identified that there was a 3% increase in the number of enquires about buying Spanish property between January and October this year compared to the same period in 2010 while the report also discovered that people looking for holiday let opportunities in Spain was the second most-enquired about destination among buy-to-let investors, after the UK, between January and October 2011.

Pritchard added: "It’s looking likely that prices in Spain will begin to increase by the end of 2011 with places like Tenerife and Malaga seeing property values improve signaling good news for the Spanish real estate market next year."