Wealthy Polish, American and Gulf-based property buyers are pouring into Spain’s capital Madrid and Costa del Sol seeking luxury refuge from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East as well as political turmoil in the United States.
Spain, particularly its Mediterranean coast, has long been a magnet for sun-seeking Britons and Germans. But in recent years a broader mix of investors looking to diversify their assets and hedge against instability has moved in, a half dozen real estate agents, European housing market analysts and a property lawyer told Reuters.
Official government data confirm the trend.“Whether it’s Ukrainians or Poles settling on the Costa del Sol, or Americans coming to Spain, the common factor is the geopolitical situation,” said Rebeca Caballero, head of realtor Gilmar’s international department.
According to last year’s property register data, more than 39 per cent of all home sales in major tourist provinces including Malaga on the Costa del Sol, Alicante on the Costa Blanca and the Balearic Islands involved foreign buyers.
That has helped to send prices surging in a country where housing is a major political issue and the central bank called for coordinated policy efforts to boost housing supply with an estimated shortage of 750,000 homes.
Buyers from Poland, among Europe’s fastest-growing economies, have been investing in Spanish coastal properties since 2020. But their purchases have tripled since the COVID-19 pandemic and accounted for 4 per cent of all foreign purchases last year, up from 1.6 per cent in 2019.
“The strongest wave of investment came after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine ... with a frenzy of purchases made over the phone,” said Agnieszka Marciniak-Kostrzewa, founder of a Marbella-based real estate agency.
Marlena Bartkowiak is part of that surge. The 46-year-old, who owns a transport company in Poland, purchased an apartment in Benalmadena on Andalusia’s Costa del Sol as a backup plan when the war broke out.
“Spain came to mind as it was somehow the least involved in all sorts of political manoeuvring on the European stage,” said Bartkowiak, who still lives primarily in Poland.
Neinor HOME MC, one of Spain’s largest property developers, sold 70 per cent of its premium 102-home Santa Clara complex completed in Marbella last year to Polish clients. And Polish buyers dominate a 64-floor skyscraper under construction in Benidorm, another coastal hot spot.“Spain right now is a diversification play on security grounds,” said Paloma Perez Bravo, CEO of real estate firm Dils-Lucas Fox.
