The Canary Islands was the second autonomous community where the sale of free housing by foreigners increased the most in the second half of 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year. The increase was 57.1%, conditioned by the falls recorded in the final stretch of 2020, when the effects of the pandemic were felt in the market.
According to data from the General Council of Notaries, the average price paid by non-resident foreigners in the islands increased by 11% in the Canary Islands.
According to these data from the Notaries, in the last six months of last year the trend of the previous semester was broken, and the operations carried out by foreigners represented 18.6% of the total sales at the national level, in line with the average of 2012-2019 (18.7%).
In total, the sale of free housing by foreigners registered an increase of 41.9% in Spain in the first semester of this year, when it reached 63,934 operations, after the sharp decrease in the first and second half of 2020, when they fell by 37.3% and 10.8%, respectively.
Resident foreigners carried out 54.8% of the sales, which is 27.4% more in year-on-year terms, while the remaining 45.2% corresponded to non-residents, which rose by 64.5%.
These operations increased in all the autonomous communities, led by the Balearic Islands (with 81.5% more); Canary Islands (57.1% more); Andalusia (55% more); Cantabria (50.5% more) and Valencian Community (44.9% more).
Below the national average - which was around a 42% increase - increases were recorded, for example, in Catalonia, Asturias, Navarra, Murcia, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon, Basque Country, La Rioja and Extremadura, which ranged between 34.6% and 13.1% more.
The price rose by 14.3%
The average price of these operations was 2,016 euros/square meter, that is, 14.3% more in year-on-year rate.
Non-resident foreigners paid higher amounts for their homes (2,481 euros/m2) than residents (1,567 euros/m2) and nationals (1,503 euros/m2).
Specifically, the average price paid by non-resident foreigners increased by 11.8%, and that of residents, by 9.9%.
By areas, the evolution was almost unanimous as it rebounded in all the autonomous communities except in Extremadura, where it decreased by 0.1%.
In Cantabria there was the largest increase, with a rise of 24.1%. The advances also reached double-digit rates in Andalusia (16.6%); Madrid (13.7%); Canary Islands (11%); Castilla y León (10.1%), and Valencian Community (10%).
Between 10% and 5% prices grew in the Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Navarra, Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia and La Rioja, and already below, but still on the rise, were Aragon and Asturias.
The British, the most buyers in the second semester
Taking into account nationality, the group of foreigners that acquired the most homes in this period were the British, with 11.8% of the total operations (7,560), followed by the Germans (10.4%) and the French (8.3%). Those from outside the European Union accounted for 11.4%.
According to the data, purchases by Dutch (104.1% year-on-year), Irish (99.3%) and Germans (84.9%) increased with greater intensity.
In addition, the highest average prices per square meter were paid by buyers from Sweden (2,752 euros/m2); Denmark (2,750 euros/m2); Germany (2,741 euros/m2); United States (2,601 euros/m2) and Switzerland (2,479 euros/m2).
More economical were those paid by Moroccans (688 euros/m2), Romanians (990 euros/m2) and Ecuadorians (1,087 euros/m2).
For its part, the prices that grew the most were those of purchases made by Americans (23.4% more), followed by Argentinians (19.6% more), while those paid by nationals of China (5.2% less) and Russia (1.6% less) decreased.
