Last updated on December 13, 2015
Affluent Russian, Chinese and other international buyers, are taking advantage of Spain’s ‘Golden Visa’ law and changing the face of Spanish holiday resorts, it has been claimed by estate agent Tony Barnes.
Barnes, an agent with Immobilier Javea, says that last year it sold more property to non-European buyers, mainly from Russia and China, than to Spanish nationals and European expats, according to opp-connect.
Wealthy foreign buyers snapped up properties under the Spanish government’s recently introduced ‘Golden Visa’ scheme, allowing non-EU nationals to purchase property worth over €500,000 in exchange for Spanish residency.
Barnes claims that many of the buyers are failing to properly maintain their homes and are causing havoc in the locales of their new properties.
“While it is good to see movement in the property market, I have been concerned about the changing face of the popular resorts on the coast,” he said.
“For example, the Chinese have bought several properties on an urbanization located just outside the town of Javea, and although they are typically purchased by an older person with a business-like aspect, within no time many occupants arrive.
“In some circumstances, it appears as though dozens of Chinese are sharing a property with only two or three bedrooms. Rubbish accumulates in the gardens, and there appears to be nobody taking responsibility for the upkeep of the properties, which lowers the tone of the urbanisation.”
Multiple ‘Chinese shops’ are beginning to spring up in Costa Blanca. They sell an expansive range of cheap goods, including clothes, electronics and toiletries, many of which are manufactured in China and do not work as intended or break after only a few uses, Mr Barnes has claimed.
“The Russian community tends to enjoy socialising and drinking, but are only doing so in establishments owned by their fellow countrymen, and it is not unusual for fights to break out in the neighbourhood of the bars as a result of excessive consumption of alcohol.
“Less interested in going out, the Chinese people are rarely seen on the streets away from their place of work, and do not appear to frequent local restaurants and shop only at selected stores with the lowest prices.”
Barnes says that he would hope to see a rise in the number of purchases made by Spanish nationals and EU residents in 2014, to balance out the large number of foreign nationals which have arrived in the area during the last 12 months.
However, despite the concern from Barnes, Ron Wilkinson of Alta Vista Property, believes that there is no real problem being caused by the ‘Golden Visa’ scheme.
“When you look at the figures, only a very small amount of buyers have actually taken advantage of the ‘Golden Visa’ scheme. In the eight months since the scheme was introduced, only 72 non-EU nationals have decided to take up the offer, an average of less than ten per month,” he explained.
“I have also not witnessed any cases of people complaining about the effect of these foreign nationals on the areas which they have chosen to reside within, if anything, we are receiving positive comments on the way that they are fitting into the communities.”
Bradley Shore is an experienced travel and investment blogger whose main interests are travel and property investment, he writes mostly freelance but has also been doing work for many different clients.
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