A place in the sun no more? Britons buying less property in Spain and Brexit is being blamed

Empty shelves, fuel shortages and a lack of seasonal workers are all things that have been blamed on Brexit.

Now there seems to be another item to add to the list – Germans have overtaken Britons for snapping up property on the Spanish Costas.

For the first time, it has been recorded that Germans bought more properties in Spain than Britons, whose fondness for buying a place under the sun has turned some resorts into virtual colonies.

The latest data shows that Germans bought 10.4 per cent of all properties purchased by foreigners in Spain during the third quarter of 2021, compared with 9.9 per cent for Britons, according to data from the Spanish College of Registrars.

And the underlying reason for the geographical shift in property buyers seems to be Brexit, according to experts.

New rules that came into action in January after the UK’s divorce from the European Union mean Britons who are not registered as residents in Spain can only spend up to 90 days out of any 180 in the country.

This makes little difference to those who buy holiday homes but for retired Britons who want to spend their winters sunning themselves on the Costas, it has put some off buying, say analysts.

“The real effect of Brexit is the main reason we are buying fewer houses.  Of course the demand for property in Spain is still very strong but all the new restrictions which have come into action this year are putting people off,” Mark Stucklin, a property expert who runs the Spanish Property Insight website, said.

“For Germans, Spain is also easier to get to than for Britons. They don’t have to put up with extra Covid-19 restrictions that the UK brought in, so the pandemic is also a factor too.”

It was long said that the sun went to Britons’ heads when it came to buying a villa on the Costa Blanca or the Costa del Sol.

When bulldozers arrived to knock down villas that turned out to be illegal, some unfortunate Britons became the symbols of this folly.

On Mr Stucklin’s website, a reader calling themself Vendido (“sold” in Spanish) wrote: “In years past it was said many Brits buying in Spain left their common sense behind in the UK, the motives for buying often driven by heart not head and endorsed by ‘Homes in the Sun’ type TV programmes.

“Maybe the pandemic has given them an enforced time to think about our priorities. Buying in Spain is a means to lose money. I think the love affair with second homes in Spain is on the wane. The general economic situation in Spain is not good. Buy at your own peril.”

Mr Stucklin agrees the British affection for Spanish property may be coming to an end.

In 2007, some 43 per cent of all properties bought by foreigners were snapped up by the British, according to the Spanish College of Registrars.

Since the 1970s, the British turned parts of the Costa Blanca, one of their favourite parts of Spain, into small colonies in resorts like Benidorm, Denia, Calpe, Orihuela or Torrevieja.

Fish’n’chip shops, British pubs and union jacks reigned supreme alongside the sound of English, rather than Spanish, being spoken.

Ximo Puig, the regional president of Valencia, which includes these resorts, has warned last week that Brexit is putting off Britons.

He called for “Brexit to be as Brexit-less as possible”.

Reyes Maroto, Spain’s tourism minister, said that a task force of diplomats from the UK and Spain had been set up to find solutions to “mobility issues”.

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The number of Britons visiting the Valencia region plunged post-Brexit from 3 million in 2019 to just 600,000 in 2020.

At the same time, many older Britons who sold their homes in the UK to spend their retirements in Spain are returning to Britain, partly because of Brexit.

The retirees are known as “swallows” because they come to Spain in winter to enjoy the warmer weather and then return to Britain in summer. Since Brexit, they can no longer enjoy this freedom to spend months in the warmer climes of the Costas.

Dave Fisher can pick pomegranates and pink grapefruits in the garden of his house in southern Spain.

However, he is planning on selling up his villa and buying a  smaller flat in south London.

“I am going to miss the way of life in Spain. But I am leaving partly because of Brexit which makes life more difficult if you are not a resident. It is also because of my age and the pandemic that I am trying to sell up,” Mr Fisher said.

The 75-year-old retired computer worker from London is trying to sell his three-bedroom property in Chiclana, near Cadiz, which has been his home for the past 18 years.

“It is going to be tough. Picking pomegranates or pink grapefruits is not going to be an option in south London,” he said.