British favour Majorca for second homes

BRITISH people have bought more second homes in Majorca this year than in Andalucia and Levante, according to Taylor Woodrow.
The leading construction company confirmed that in 2005 their sales in the island had exceeded their expectations by 22.5 percent, this year selling 200 houses, mainly to British people, as opposed to 155 in 2004. Mark Pritchard, director of sales for Taylor Woodrow, explained that the number of sales to British buyers was increasing, and the number of sales to German buyers was also recovering after nearly three years in crisis, although at a slower rate. He added that Taylor Woodrow, as well as many other firms specialising in the sale of second homes to foreigners, were selling mainly in the east of Majorca, principally in places like Portocristo. According to Pritchard, the average British buyer has around 300'000 euros to spend on a second property whereas some German buyers have up to 1.5 or 2 million euros. Pritchard defined the average home which foreigners buy in Majorca as an 80 square metre 2 bedroomed flat with two terraces and 2 bathrooms, which is bought for an average of 250'000 euros. As for the expected deceleration in 2006 announced recently by the Official College of Architects of the Balearics, Mark Pritchard thought that the demand in Majorca was rising above that on the Spanish mainland in places like Alicante and Marbella. With respect to expected sales in 2006, he said he thought that the only possible negative effect was that “It is getting more difficult to sell from the plan”. However, he expected that, in absolute terms, sales would proceed at a good pace. According to figures published last week more that half (53 percent) of owners of second homes situated on the Spanish coasts are foreigners, principally citizens of the United Kingdom, Germany and France. In a joint study, it was found that the British are the major buyers of holiday homes in the Spanish market. The report underlined that the British, the foreign community most prevalent in Spain, choose the Mediterranean coast, the Canaries or the Balearics for their second home, as demonstrated by the figures which show that the two island groups had 24'472 and 14'744 British people at the beginning of 2005, Valencia 86'214 and Andalucia 63'472.