Spain’s property market sustained by immigrants - and divorcees

There are a number of factors which contribute to Spain’s increasing demand on the property market – from an increase number of households to a number of increasing immigrants.

According to the Financial Times, specifically a report by Angel Berges, a partner at Analistas Financieros Incernationales, a Madrid consultancy, that says that there is an estimation of immigrants who will buy at least 170,000 homes in Spain this year (almost a quarter of the total demand for new houses in Spain). “Buyers needs not worry of the property crash in Spain this year, in the short or medium term. This is because of the new demands instigated by our immigrants,” says Berges, who reported to Financial Times.

Since 2000, there has been a continuing increase to immigrants in Spain. The rising immigrants quadrupled to more than 4 million – or at least 9 percent of the total population – and the amnesty of last year resulted to almost 700,000 illegal immigrants being awarded residence papers and job permits. However, the figures of immigrants owning properties in Spain, at least 16 percent (according to real estate Fincas Coral), showed that there really is a future for further sales in properties. With this figures alone, financial analysts have predicted a forecast economic growth of 3.1 percent for 2006 and 3.2 percent in 2007.

Aside from the influx of immigrants to Spain, there is also a return on Spain’s increasing divorce and separation rates, according to Angel Berges. This has been highlighted by a new fast-track divorce law which was introduced by the Socialist government – with an 80 percent in increase in divorcees last year, ballooning to at least 87,000 divorcees. With the influx of divorcees, the income of generating properties increased to about 140,000 new homes in one year, according to real estate agents and by Fernando Encinar of Idealista.com (a Spanish real estate portal), who said that property developers are now putting up one-bedroom flats and more studios just for these divorcees.

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Spain’s property market sustained by immigrants - and divorcees

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