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1. Real estate transactions in Spain are at the highest level since 2008!
Spaniards and Foreigners are very active, both are buying the most since 2008, check this chart:
If you want to read more on that subject, read our article: Who are the foreigners buying properties in Spain? Or read our detailed quarterly Spanish property price report for all the main cities.
2. Real estate prices in Spain are low compared to historical standards and started to rise again since end 2014.
Here is the evolution chart of the price per square meter in Spain over the last 20 years.
- Check our Price Indicator Table with real estate indicators in Spain
- Check how Spanish prices evolved vs Europe
- Real estate prices are low compared to rental yields, which make Spain a nice investment proposition.
- If you want to check prices for the major cities, have a look at our Spanish property market report: our detailed analysis of the top 20 markets!
3. Real estate prices are low compared to mortgage costs.
If you are looking to invest in Spanish real estate, have a quick look at our detailed article: What return will you make on your Spanish Property?
4. Economic growth is back in Europe and Spain is one of the strongest countries in Europe.
Economic Growth expectations for 2020, European Commission, “Winter 2019- update”
Click on a country to check its growth rate, Source : 1
The European commission sees the Spanish growth decelerating further to 2.1% in 2019 and 1.9% in 2020 as the cycle matures. The deceleration is mainly driven by a slowdown in private consumption, which is expected to grow more slowly than disposable income, as pent-up demand is absorbed and households increase their saving rate.
Read our last article on that subject: Spain GDP growth: the European commission expectations for 2019 & 2020
5. Enjoy 320 days of sun per year!
Have a look at our Infographics on the monthly weather statistics for the 18 biggest cities in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga,… and discover the sea temperature, the number of hours of sun per day, the number of mm of rain per month… Everything you need before planning your holidays.
Source: 2
6. The second longest coastal line in the south of Europe, behind Italy. Enjoy the beautiful beaches of Spain.
7. Spain enjoys a very stable political environment compared to Africa or Turkey for instance.
8. Qualitative ranks:
- Life expectancy by countries and by sex: Top 10 countries in the world. As you will see in the statistics produced by the OECD (2014 data), the life expectancy of Spaniards is the second longest in the world behind Japanese. The Women are ranked as well as second and the men are ranked sixth.
- Health Care System in Spain is ranked by the World Health Organization as the seventh in the world. Source: 3
- Work life balance rank in the World: Spain is at the fourth place behind the Netherlands, the Denmark and France. What a terrific result!
The key findings of the research from OECD are:
“The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life are important for the well-being of all members of a household. In Spain, almost 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time are important for people’s overall well-being and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Spain, full-time workers devote 66% of their day on average, or 15.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours.
At around 1.3 children per woman, fertility rates in Spain have been amongst the lowest in the OECD for the past two decades. Increasingly, women and men first want to establish themselves in the labour market before having children. This has led to a postponement of childbirth and the average age of first childbirth for mothers is now close to 30. Low fertility rates are also related to a fall in the number of large families and a significant proportion of women remaining childless.”
Read our detailed article on that: “Spain is the world’s healthiest country”
Source: 4
9. The cost of life in Spain is much lower than European averages.
We did the work with the help of the Statistics from Eurostat as of December 2017 to compare Spain vs all the other Countries in Europe so that you could compare to your actual country of origin.
Here are the results:
If you compare Spain on this Chart in Orange colour with Europe in Blue colour, you will notice that Spain is more expensive in 2 areas: “Electricity, Gaz and fuels” and “Furniture and Furnishings” by 3%. A third sector not represented on this chart is Communication, which is 28% more expensive than the rest of Europe. For all the other sectors, Spain is cheaper!
Let’s have a look at the data:
For more information, read our article on that subject: Which are the cheapest Spanish cities?
10. Infrastructure network:
- Motorways are becoming toll free in Spain as we wrote in our article.
- International Airports:
- Fast train AVE Network:
Source: 5
11. Sightseeing places:
Spain is a very rich country in terms of culture. You have a lot of Museums, many historic places, many sightseeing places. Spain has as well 45 UNESCO Sites and as such is the third country in the world behind Italy & China in terms of the number of sites! So don’t expect Spain to be just Sun and beaches!
Check all the must do activities on any of the Spanish Costas with our beautiful infographics.
Here is the list of the Unesco sites with direct links to get more information on those:
- Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada(1984)
- Antequera Dolmens Site(2016)
- Aranjuez Cultural Landscape(2001)
- Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida(1993)
- Archaeological Ensemble of Tárraco(2000)
- Archaeological Site of Atapuerca(2000)
- Burgos Cathedral(1984)
- Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí(2000)
- Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville(1987)
- Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain(1985)
- Cultural Landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana(2011)
- Heritage of Mercury. Almadén and Idrija(2012)
- Historic Centre of Cordoba(1984)
- Historic City of Toledo(1986)
- Historic Walled Town of Cuenca(1996)
- La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia(1996)
- Las Médulas(1997)
- Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid(1984)
- Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias(1985)
- Mudejar Architecture of Aragon(1986)
- Old City of Salamanca(1988)
- Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches(1985)
- Old Town of Cáceres(1986)
- Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct(1985)
- Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona(1997)
- Palmeral of Elche(2000)
- Poblet Monastery(1991)
- Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde(1998)
- Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda and Baeza(2003)
- Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula(1998)
- Roman Walls of Lugo(2000)
- Routes of Santiago de Compostela:Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain (1993)
- Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe(1993)
- San Cristóbal de La Laguna(1999)
- San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries(1997)
- Santiago de Compostela (Old Town)(1985)
- Tower of Hercules(2009)
- University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares(1998)
- Vizcaya Bridge(2006)
- Works of Antoni Gaudí(1984)
Natural (3)
- Doñana National Park(1994)
- Garajonay National Park(1986)
- Teide National Park(2007)
Mixed (2)
- Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture(1999)
- Pyrénées – Mont Perdu (1997)
Find more on this here: http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/es
12. Spain is the number 1 country in terms of the number of nights spent by tourists in Europe. In 2014, year for which we have the last available data’s, Eurostat measured that 1,2 Bn nights were spent by tourists in Europe according to Eurostat. The Top three destinations are Spain with 21,5% of the nights, Italy with 15,5% of the nights and France with 10,8%.
Source: 6
Read our detailed article on that: “Spain is the world number one country for tourism”
13. Low construction costs
Discover the best new build projects in Spain available right now
FAQ Buying property in Spain
Check our infographic on why people invest in Spain
Sources:
1: European Commission forecasts – Autumn 2018.
2: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Europe_sunshine_hours_map.png
4: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/work-life-balance/
