According to the department of studies of the ‘proptech’ Sonneil, from the beginning of the war until the end of March, the search for houses in Spain has shot up 134% from countries close to Ukraine, among which Poland, the Czech Republic and especially Romania
The study unit of the ‘proptech’ specialized in the sale of residences to foreign buyers has explained that “when comparing the number of requests for information from February 1 to the end of March 2022 with those of the same period of 2021, the increase is 134%. Poland stands out, where interest in homes in Spain from this country has grown by more than 115%. Romania and the Czech Republic also stand out, in which the interest in residences in our country has gone from being marginal to showing an increase of 700% and 71%, respectively. In addition, he adds that, “in a month, while the Russian attacks intensified, requests for information from countries close to Ukraine have grown by 330%”.
The real estate company recalls that its data is in line with the upward trend of searches for housing in Spain through Google, after having analyzed the use of more than 6,300 keywords related to the search for a house in Spain from the set of countries near Ukraine.
According to the ‘proptech’ study, they have compared the number of times that users from these countries entered these expressions in the Google search engine before and after the outbreak of the war and in the same period of 2021. “The use of words related to the search for housing in Spain grew by more than 67% compared to the previous year in the group of countries close to Ukraine”.
In addition to this, an Idealista study also shows that searches for rental homes in Spain made from Ukraine increased significantly during January and February, being 77% more than those registered in the same period of 2021 and 92% more than in that of 2020, weeks before the pandemic began.
The areas with the most demand
According to the Sonneil study, the coastal area is where housing searches have increased the most, with the Costa Blanca leading the rises (108%). The most striking increases are those registered by La Nucía (300% more than in 2021), Moraira (133%) and Alicante (127%).
It is followed by the Costa de la Luz (Huelva), with an increase of 50%, and the Canary Islands, which have received 39% more searches. Asturias also stands out, the only autonomous community in northern Spain in which interest in housing has increased from countries close to Ukraine.
However, the Spanish cities where the residents of these countries have looked for the most houses since the war began have been Marbella, Torrevieja and Malaga, although the highest year-on-year growth in demand has been recorded by Cadaqués (Gerona) and La Nucía (Alicante). , with increases of 500% and 300% respectively; followed by Chiclana (Cádiz) and Málaga (200% each).
Regarding rentals, the Mediterranean arc also concentrated the demand in the first two months of the year, despite the fact that 35 Spanish provinces registered an increase. Barcelona was the target for 26% of searches by Ukrainian citizens, followed by Alicante (19%), Valencia (16%), Malaga (13%) and Madrid (6%). With less than 5% are the provinces of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (5%), Las Palmas (1.6%), Tarragona (1.5%), Girona (1.4%), the Balearic Islands (1.3% ), Cádiz (1.1%) and Almería (1.1%).
