We are the biggest group of tourists packing the beaches of the Spanish costas this summer and we are still leading the charge when it comes to buying homes there, or even moving there lock, stock and barrel.
The number of Brits living in Spain continues to rise
Data from Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE) shows that the number of Brits living in Spain has increased by 11,047 over the past year. According to padrón (census) in January 293,171 UK nationals were residents in Spain, more than the number of Italians, Germans and Spanish, with only Romanians a higher number. At a provincial level, Alicante in the Valencia region comes top (again) with 76,739 Britons.
This might surprise those that think it’s incredibly difficult to get a visa to move to Spain now, but the process is getting easier and a little more streamlined, and there’s also the option of the new digital nomad visa. What’s more the cost of living that is 21% lower than the UK’s, according to numbeo.com.
It is great news that inflation is finally on the way down, but British buyers have been careful about putting all their money in one basket by applying for mortgages when buying a home in Spain. According to Idealista, UK nationals are the biggest foreign group applying for mortgages in Spain - making up just below 20% in the first half of the year.
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But then we are also still the biggest buyers in Spain, according to the latest available data from Spain – in Q1 of this year British buyers bought 2,216 homes, down 14% year on year, but still with the biggest foreign market share of 9.5%.
Where to Brits live in Spain?
But where do the British live? The INE data reveals that the biggest number of Brits are in Andalusia (92,180), followed by Valencia region (87,699), and then the Canary Islands (29,631).
Behind these are Catalonia (24,689), the Balearic Islands (19,569) and then Murcia is fast gaining new fast British residents (17,562) with affordability a key attraction.
