If you’re looking into purchasing a property in Spain, you might be questioning wherever it’s the right time to do it. Brexit uncertainty is currently the number one issue that stops Brits from relocating and purchasing a property in Spain. Therefore an impact of Brexit on Spanish housing market.
A lot of Brits seek to relocate to Spain each year, be it for retirement, to live a better life or to work.
During 2018, a total of 53,359 house purchases were made by non-Spanish nationals from around the world this is almost two in every ten property sales in Spain. British nationals make up the largest group of international buyers of property in Spain with over 7,613 purchases between January and June. This is a 13% increase since the start of Brexit referendum in June 2016.
What effect has Brexit had?
In this infographic provided by MoneyTransfers.com, we see the effect that Brexit has had on the GBP and what effect this could have had on the housing market.
However, British demand is directly driven by the value of GBP relative to EUR. This implies that the lower the value of the pound is, the less disposable income Britons have and the more expensive the property market becomes for them.
There has been a lot of uncertainty when it comes to Spanish mortgages, including the changes in the process, mortgage restrictions and future implications for Spanish property purchases.
Since Britons make up the largest portion of international property buyers, it would make no sense for Spain to overcomplicate the process, hence it is very likely that the Spanish banks won’t restrict British citizens from property purchase.
It is known that the only people coming from the blacklisted countries are unable to get a loan in Spain, and the United Kingdom has not been blacklisted. This also implies that getting Spanish mortgage post-Brexit shouldn’t be a problem.
On the other hand, there might be a change in future legislation. Current legislation allows European banks to opt-in for the debt collector services and chase up debtors in countries of their origin. It is currently unknown what will happen post-Brexit when the UK leaves the European Union as banks won’t be able to pursue debtors in the non-EU countries. Meaning that Spanish banks might need to implement the same risk assessment procedures for the UK citizens as for the non-EU citizens.
If you want to find out more about the Brexit impact, check out the source of the infographic https://moneytransfers.com/the-brexit-impact