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Most professionals operating in the Spanish real estate market agree that prices are bumping along the bottom of the curve. “Whilst thousands of repossessed properties have been placed onto the market by bankers, we have seen no significant downward movement of prices as a result.” said one professional in Marbella. “This bodes well for both investors and people considering a permanent move to Spain.” He continued.

Investment in buy-to-rent property certainly looks like a promising strategy in the current market. Prices have shown significant falls, but rents for holiday properties have not followed. Statistics show that Spain is the second most popular holiday venue in the world after the United States. The amount of holidays taken in the country has shown a steady increase over the last ten years and has only been marginally affected by the world-wide economic crisis. Spain receives over 60 million visits per year. This is prompted by two factors. First of all there is the weather of course. The Southern Spanish coast, such as the aptly named Costa del Sol, receives over 300 days of sunshine per year on average. This is extremely attractive to the peoples of Northern Europe, especially the British and Germans.

Cheap air flights to Spain from Northern Europe have done a great deal to improve matters. There are now many regular cheap flights from most of the major cities in Europe and the availability of them is increasing. In fact, the demand for flights to Spain has led the government in partnership with the EU to greatly expand several airports popular with holiday makers. In some cases large new terminals have been added. In others, facilities have been improved to increase passenger handling efficiency. The effect has been to greatly improve the tourist’s experience which in turn is encouraging people to return more often.

A further government incentive is the vast improvement to the roads network. A great deal of money and effort has gone into this over recent years. Tourists now find that are able to more easily visit parts of the country further away form the main holiday venues than was previously the case. A bonus to this is that easier road transport leads to the ability to let properties further away from the main resorts at a rental that makes the enterprise worthwhile. Older people do not always enjoy the noise and bustle of the main resorts, but they do enjoy the Southern Spanish climate. The improved road system is opening up further opportunities for buy-to-let investors.

A vast amount of recently published data is showing that Spain is lagging the rest of Europe in recovering from the Credit Crunch although its financial system has not had to be bailed out by the European Bank as have Portugal, Greece and Ireland. The effect of the recovery lag is to make living in Spain much cheaper. This feeds through to the tourists who are that much keener to visit where buying goods is deemed to be a much better deal and where they will get much more value for their money.

The attraction of Spain as a holiday destination therefore leads to a situation where voids in a buy-to-let property are much less likely to happen, especially in the high season.

Another factor in the favour of buying an investment property is the current low rate of interest obtainable on mortgages. The regulator, the Bank of Spain is enforcing the largest 23 Spanish banks to sell off much of the repossessed property they are holding on their books. They have only until September to achieve this. As a result they are offering extremely good deals to foreigners to take up mortgages with them that are attached to the purchase of a repossessed property. Some shopping around will discover extremely attractive fixed rate offers.

All things considered, it appears that now is a good time to invest in a Spanish buy-to-rent property but as always, you must take the appropriate professional advice.

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