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ARCHIVED - Alicante province leads the way in property sales to expats in Spain
The Valencia Region as a whole doubled the national average of foreign demand for housing in 2021
Price hikes due to the fuel crisis and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has dealt the construction industry a major blow on the Costa Blanca recently, with many developers downing tools due to delivery and supply problems.
However, in spite of this, relevant indicators of the evolution of the real estate market confirm the sector is recovering from the crisis brought about by the Covid pandemic and consequent movement restrictions in Alicante province.
And national Registrar data confirms Alicante is the leading Spanish province in terms of used-housing sales with a rate of 19.1 transactions per 100,000 inhabitants.
Together with the Community's other provinces, Valencia and Castellón, the trio were above the national average in this sector of the market at the beginning of the year.
And in terms of sales and purchases of all types of homes, Alicante ranks second in relative transactions, only behind Malaga on the Costa del Sol.
According to Fernando Vilanova, of the Vilanova Inmobiliaria group, there are several factors which can explain Alicante's domination of the leader board.
Fundamentally, it's because "there is a lot of supply of used housing in good areas at much more affordable prices than new ones, and many people prefer to buy these homes and refurbish them rather than go to the expansion areas".
But another factor is the fact there are still a lot of repossessed homes awarded to banks in the province, and they "continue to enter in a continuous trickle, because foreclosures from five or six years ago are now being resolved".
In line with almost every other commodity at the moment, the average price per home in the Valencia region also grew in 2021, by 4.48% – above the national average of 3.87%.
And every square metre cost that little bit more in the most expensive municipalities in Alicante province, including: Javea, Benidorm, Altea and El Campello.
Valencia towns that stand out are: Paterna Cullera and Puzol. And in Castellón, home seekers stumped up slightly more in the towns of Benicàssim, Peñíscola, Oropesa del Mar and Alcalà de Xivert.
International sales have without doubt been affected the most over the last couple of years, but the Valencia region has managed to buck the trend and doubled the national average of foreign demand for housing in 2021.
Whilst in Spain, the average percentage reached 10.8% (similar to 2013), on the Costa Blanca it rose to 20.8%, placing Valencia as the third most successful autonomous region in this section, behind the Balearic and Canary Islands. And again, Alicante led the national provincial ranking, tripling the national average with a percentage of 34.35%.
The biggest markets were: British, Belgian, Swedish, French and German.
Image: Archive
