In the first half of the year, the purchase of private housing on the part of foreigners rose to 43,519 transactions, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%.The transactions undertaken by foreign buyers represent 20.3% of the total house sales completed in the semester, more than increases since 2007.
50.5% of foreign transactions were carried out by non residents. The purchase of private housing by resident foreigners rose by 21.0%, higher than de those undertaken by non resident foreigners, at 18.4%.
The average price per square metre of transactions by foreign buyers in the first semester of 2016, as applied to private free market housing, was 1,618 euros, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%. Similarly, it is important to point out different price behaviour, a function of residence. In the first half of the year, the average price per square metre for non resident rose by 4.3%, at 1,855 euros, while the price of housing purchased by resident foreigners only came to 0.5%, at 1,359 euros. In principle, the evolution of the price per square metre appears to point to a recovery in the figures since the first semester of 2013.
British, French and Germans are the biggest buyers
At the close of the first semester of 2016, on grouping foreign buyers according to nationality, it can be seen that that the greatest group of foreign buyers are the British (19,0%), followed by the French (8,0%), Germans (7,8%), Italians (6,5%), Swedes (5,9%) and Romanians (5,7%). Together they make up more than half the house purchase transactions by foreigners during this period.
The nationalities with the most market activity on the housing market during the first half of the year are the Ecuadorians with an increase of 68.2%, in year-to-year terms. In the same way, Moroccans (49.2%), Swedes (41.2%), Danes (38.0%), Portuguese (37.0%), Italians (34.4%), Romanians (33.3%), Argentinians (26.8%), Irish (25.7%), Germans (23.1%), Dutch (22.2%) and Americans (21.2%) show year-to-year variation rates above the national (19.7%).
On dividing up the house purchase market by foreigners as a function of residence and non-residence, one can observe that the Danes (87.5%) and Ecuadorians (70.6%) are the nationalities of foreign residents which have most increased house sales in the first semester of 2016. On the other hand, the Swiss (-14.9%) and Norwegians (-8.6%), collectively of all residents, experienced a fall in the number of house purchase agreements.
Continuing in terms of levels, and for foreign residents, Romania (2,440) and the United Kingdom (2,321) share the top two positions in the ranking.
The entire group of non-resident foreigners increased the volume of transactions year-to-year to 18,4%. The most active buyers were the Chinese and Moroccans (70.9% and 51.1%, respectively). In contrast, the Russians (‑20.3%) and Norwegians (-4.2%) were those whose house sales were most reduced in number in the first semester of 2-16.