Alicante becomes the favourite province for foreigners to buy or rent property

Alicante closed 2024 as the favourite province for foreigners to acquire a property. The Alicante real estate sector has once again recorded high demand from foreign citizens, who once more place the province as the one with the highest foreign demand for housing.

This is derived from the 'Annual Residential Market Report', prepared by the real estate portal Idealista, which places both the province and the city of Alicante at the top of foreign demand for buying and renting properties in Spain.

Thus, in the rental market, the province has more than 27% foreign demand, while in the case of the capital, this percentage drops to 24.5%. After reaching a peak in July 2024 with 31.32% of foreigners in the rental market, the curve has stabilised.

According to Idealista, this phenomenon by foreigners is due "mainly to the interest of German, American, and French citizens," nationalities that led the demand throughout Spain, although others like Polish or British have significant importance in the province of Alicante.

In the case of property sales, foreign demand is even higher, once again placing Alicante as the province with the highest percentage, which stands above 36%. Moreover, the city of Alicante is also the capital with the highest foreign demand in all of Spain, with 23.79%.

The peak was reached at the beginning of 2024, with almost 40%, although the values recorded at the end of the year are among the highest in the last five years. Again, Germany is the biggest buyer in Spain, without overlooking the Polish presence in the Marinas, or the British and Eastern Europeans on the Alicante coast.

Housing demand is one of the most concerning aspects of the current market. With low supply and skyrocketing prices, this growth is further straining a market lacking in properties.

According to Idealista, Alicante is the province with the largest stock of homes for sale, with 9.97% of the real estate market. The situation is more alarming in the case of rentals, with a percentage that does not even reach 1% of the province's residential rental properties.

The situation is even more tense considering that on average more than 20 people compete to access a rental apartment. Almost two more people than at the end of 2023. Idealista insists that the demand pressure on rental properties on its portal "is increasingly greater" and experts agree that the lack of supply and high demand is driving prices to unprecedented levels.

In fact, despite Alicante starting the year with a slight decline, the 11.8 euros per square metre that rent cost in January is 10% more than the figure for the same month, and four euros per square metre more than the numbers during the real estate bubble. A situation that does not seem likely to calm down in the coming months.