SPAIN PROPERTY STILL SUNNYSIDE UP AS PUTIN’S BLOOD-RED WAR FAILS TO PANIC EU?

When that bloated Grim Reaper Putin invaded the Ukraine he spun the world by its tail.

And the gut reaction of many global property speculators and ex-pats was that, `particularly the Spanish market, would fail as Russian money was frozen in the world’s air like black ice.

But far from it.

The market in Spain is actually still booming – although house prices in places like Marbella, Torreveija and many parts of the Costas are so inflated that it can be cheaper to buy a house in the leafy suburbs of the UK and an expensive sunlamp.

Yep, the country which has been a favourite with Brits, Irish, Swedes and Russians for decades is no longer the cheap bunfight of wine women and thong.

Many of the sunny resorts are becoming oases for elderly couples moving in to Moorish retirement homes close to the beaches or pinned on a mountainside near a fly-blown lake.

Rich Russians have for decades been big buyers of swish and not so swish holiday homes in the Costas – Mad Vlad himself owns a 4.5 acre compound in La Zagaleta in the mountains outside Marbella.

It was thought that the freezing of Oligarch-ish fortunes in a panic response to the blood and destruction in the land of the sunflowers and corn would take the boom out of the market.

Certainly there were reports of deals falling through because of the big buck sanctions but the market held on to its hopes and prices more or less remained.

Actually. one reason Spain may have been seen as a safe haven was its initial inability to freeze any Russian bank accounts, despite detaining at least three luxury yachts linked to ‘blacklisted individuals’.

In fact after weeks of war even neighbouring Portugal has blocked only one account owned by a sanctioned ‘individual’, with just 242 euros in it.

So, there are many reasons people – including Putin and his lot – still love to be beside the seaside, soaking up the sun and the vodka-laced sangria.

And despite the war speculation and investment in the Land of the Bull – and nobody can deny how much ‘bull’ has gone in to boosting the price of homes in Spain over the last decade – it still seems the way to go for people looking for a cool new life in the sweltering heat.

The Russian Federation against Ukraine was bound to affect the foreign real estate market in Europe. And the world.

Well, after the Russian invasion, interest in countries that, due to geographic location or neutrality, can be considered safe for the foreign real estate market, has gone up.

“After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a shock that meant a decline in purchases of foreign real estate,” Jan Rejcha said. He is a foreign real estate specialist.

However, the invasion brought an immediate positive response and interest now continues to grow month by month, in Austria by 68 percent, Croatia 72 percent. And in Spain 45 percent.

In Switzerland the hills are alive with the sound of cash tills… interest increased by 210 percent! In Italy, it is 168 percent.

In 2020 the Costa del Sol property market suffered travel restrictions, But 2021 was totally different. The market has seen strong growth in all areas. And people who work in the property sector say the second half of 2021 was one of the busiest periods ever.

By the end of the second quarter, sales had picked up by 5.4 percent. But as summer hit, the Costa del Sol property market moved into top gear. By the end of September, sales of all property types went up by 23.6 percent.

Madrid stands at the top of the leader board with real estate values in the region going up by 11.3% between January and March. 

Property went up by 8.4% on the islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, and by 7.7% in Andalusia, home to the Costa del Sol. 

Just 7 of the total 52 provinces in Spain saw price drops in Q1 this year and all were below 2%.