Jaime Garcia-Legaz, Secretary of State for Trade, declared that Russia and China are the main countries this measure would be applied to, and it is no coincidence. In fact, in recent years the share of Chinese and especially Russian investments has increased. In 2007, at the beginning of construction boom in Spain, 1.1% of the total amount of property purchased by non- Spanish residents belonged to Russians. According to the recent data of the General Notary Board of 2012, the share of Russian citizens’ property comprises at least 8% of the total amount.
Thus, Russia is becoming the 3rd country according to the amount of property purchased in Spain after the UK (13.1% of total amount) and is very close to France (8.4%). Russia is believed to replace the latter in the nearest future if this tendency goes on. Russia has gone ahead of such powerful country as Germany, which was considered leader in purchasing property in Spain, having only 6.7% of the total amount of purchased property as of today.
With 5.3% of property purchased in Spain, Italy is ranked the 5th place after Russia and Germany. Italy is followed by Belgium (5.2%) and Norway (4.8%). The 8th place is taken by China, with Romania (3.6%) and Sweden (3.5%) behind it.
Which type of real estate do Russians prefer? According to the data of the Registrars Association Russia is a country, which shows interest towards new housing, situated mainly on the coast (55.8%). Apart from that, Russia is the 3rd country citizens of which prefer spacious apartments with area over 100 square meters. On this issue Russia is inferior to Denmark and the Netherlands only.
According to notaries, the average cost of property purchased by foreigners is rather high, comprising 242.000 Euros in average. Anyway, purchasing 56% of apartments bought lately does not allow to get a residence permit as the cost of real estate is less than 160,000 Euros.
In Spain only 44% of foreigners have an official residence permit.
