Foreigners made 20% more buys than last year!

The demand of foreign buyers has driven up the purchases and prices of luxury apartments in Barcelona last year, according to the explanation of Joan Galo Macia, CEO of Engel & Volkers in Barcelona. Foreigners made 20% more buys than last year, focusing their demand on the Eixample and Ciutat Vella districts, which has led to selling prices in the area already exceeding the average of the upper area. Foreigners, explained Macia, buy apartments to live in and also as an investment. They look especially for flats with tourist licenses, which, because of the moratorium on new licenses, have risen in price. “They seek to rent out their properties during periods in which they are not going to use them. Because of the improvement in flight connections, Barcelona has become for many Europeans a city in which to have a second home.”

The power of demand and lack of supply of homes for sale with these characteristics lead Macia to predict that “prices will increase 20% this year,” following the increase of 14% already recorded last year. In the whole city, explained Macia, “prices also will recover with increases of 12%. They are increasing because they are still far from the levels of a few years ago.” In Eixample and Ciutat Vella 75% of sales closed last year were done by foreigners.

Source: La Vanguardia