Ibiza Registers Highest Property Prices In Spain

A recent study by the Spanish College Of Property Registers has revealed that 36% of all property purchased in the Balearic islands was funded with Black Money. The term “Black Money” is used to describe cash sales and financial transactions that do not involve bank loans or mortgages. Furthermore, the statistics also found that non-national buyers accounted for 83% of the black money sales, the majority of them originating from Europe. Germany reflected 44% of the property buyers, followed by the UK at 10.4% and France at 4.7%. The average purchasing power of the local Spanish market was recorded at 234,000 last year, while the non-national average was 367,000, indicating that foreigners pay more and mortgage less for a property. This compares to an average of 123,000 in The Canary Islands, a third less than the red-hot Balearic market, which has risen to the highest property prices in Spain.

The Germans were the first nationality to recognise the potential of real estate in Ibiza when they began to buy property for peanuts back in the 60s and ’70s. Due to their nomadic nature, the international Hippie family rented property rather than buying it. Local Ibicenco families would rent out their fincas and land and move into Ibiza town and purchase apartments where they could live near all the amenities and tourist jobs as farming was a subsistence existence back then and sadly remains that way today with many young Spanish nationals abandoning the land for city education and employment. The Dutch wave of property investment began in the latter years of the 90s when property was still affordable but less cheap than in the 80s.