Russian citizens stop buying and selling houses in Spain: "They have everything frozen and operations cannot be closed"

Until a few weeks ago, Russian citizens were active buyers in the second home market in some areas of Spain such as the Valencian Community, Andalusia or Catalonia, but the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian President

has practically paralyzed all their activity in the last days.

"The main problem is that they have everything frozen and operations cannot be closed," says

, owner of the Hispania Homes agency in

.

On the other end of the phone, Sanz explains that in that area Russian citizens are now more sellers than buyers, unlike a few years ago, because they have recently been moving to the Altea area.

These are investors who own several properties, usually single-family homes, whose prices are around one million euros.

"Sales have stopped because they can't receive money in their accounts and that makes the process difficult," she specifies.

According to data from the College of Registrars, Russian citizens acquired more than 1,280 properties in 2021. According to data from the consulting firm

, the weight of foreign investment in Spain reaches 12% of the total and of that percentage, the investors of Russian origin account for 2%.

According to his analysis, the Russian investor shows a greater interest in acquiring housing in coastal areas, "especially in the regions of

, and to a large extent they are looking for large assets.

"32% of buyers of Russian origin show a preference for homes of more than 100 square meters," they say.

But now all that has been paralyzed and nobody in the sector dares to predict what may happen.

"The market takes for granted that home purchases by Russian citizens will practically disappear, although its impact will be limited to their preferred areas, hardly affecting the rest of the market," says

, spokesman for the

real estate portal .

This helps to limit contagion to the rest of the sector.

"We believe that the brake of the Russian buyer will not have a direct effect on the evolution of prices in the sector, since it is not the main buyer in Spain", they admit from Knight Frank.

However, from the firm they believe that the invasion will affect the Russian buyer due to the

that have been decreed after the Moscow attack.

“In terms of financial restrictions, many of the buyers work with international banks that have not been blocked, although the blocking of Russian banks may influence the use of their international accounts,” they warn.

The effects of the attack not only alter the activity of individual buyers, but could also be transferred to large investors.

In recent years, Eastern Europe has been the target of funds and investors who have played a very important role in the development of the real estate sector in countries such as Romania, Hungary or Ukraine itself.

However, now all that is also in question.

"It's still early, but we see that many of the operations that were underway in the areas closest to the conflict, such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic, are coming to a standstill. For the time being, all this is going to slow down the taking of However, given the large volume of liquidity that exists in the market, the funds need to continue investing,

Along these lines, Iñareta also believes that "in the medium term, Spain can become a pole of attraction for Central European families who, out of prudence, want to get away from possible sources of war."

price increases

On a quasi-domestic level, the war will also have repercussions for

.

Regarding the latter, experts take it for granted that the increases in energy prices that have been recorded for days will cause an increase in inflation and that will lead to an automatic rise in rental income paid by most tenants and Quite possibly it will also have an effect on the rents that come onto the market, since they will tend to adapt to these new prices.

They warn it from Idealista, where they extend the effects of the rise in prices to the buying and selling market.

"Inflation will impact

and this could push thousands of small and medium-sized savers to protect their money in homes to escape inflation, which could further boost the investor's appetite for real estate. in certain markets such as Madrid, Malaga, the Levantine and Andalusian coast or the islands", points out Francisco Iñareta.

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