News: Effects of Brexit

It's been well over a year since Brexit, and the crash that the Spanish property market had feared still doesn't seem to have happened.

With British buyers so important in the international buyer mix, the impact of their decision to leave the EU could have been disastrous.

But Kyero's data experts have seen some positive trends over the last 17 months. While Brits do now make up a smaller proportion of our visitors – 24% compared to 30% pre-Brexit – UK traffic has actually increased by 20%.

That's not to say there haven't been some bumps along the way. While the referendum didn't have a noticeable effect, the UK general election in May and the significant fall in the value of Sterling over the summer this year both resulted in big drops.

This is a useful insight into what really matters to British buyers. Although they are clearly still interested in Spanish property, political uncertainty and affordability are key drivers when it comes to buying property abroad. No surprise then that UK enquiries have fallen by around 10% since Brexit.

Big growth in European visitors

But if UK buyers have become more cautious since June 2016, the rest of Europe has more than made up for it.

Kyero's European traffic has shot up by 41%, with a steady 20% year on year growth in the number of enquiries. These enquiries are worth more too, with the average price up 17% since Brexit, to €221,000.

The result is that despite the UK's impact, overall the outlook for the Spanish property market is good – net traffic is up by an impressive 35%, with the increase in net enquiries smaller but still encouraging at 6%.

Even the fact that house price growth has been fairly muted in the areas most popular with international buyers – provinces such as Malaga and Alicante, for example – hasn't negatively impacted the market, Instead, the gap between asking prices and buyer budget has reduced, which is a very positive sign for the future.