Rural property can be a good investment in Spain

THE rural property market is starting to boom according to data from the National Statistics Office (INE).

Last year, the purchase and sale of ‘rustic properties’ in Spain increased by 3.9% per cent compared to 2017. What’s more, 13.6 per cent of all property sales in Spain corresponded to rural real estate, with 138,906 sales of this type of property.

Apart from farming, rural homes are increasingly used as second homes, holiday homes or tourism accommodation – this is particularly important given the steady population decline seen in country areas.

According to a study by FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces) this is a real problem, with more than 4,000 Spanish municipalities having fewer than 1,000 inhabitants and being at risk of extinction in the medium to long term.

In terms of investment, rustic properties can be a good opportunity, but it pays to shop around between regions.

According to website Vitrio the cheapest areas are Extremadura (4,149 € / ha), Aragon (5,194 € / ha), Castilla y León (5,781 € / ha) and Castilla La Mancha (6,521 € / ha). At the other end of the scale are the Canary Islands (86,072 € / ha), Andalucia (19,957 € / ha) and the Balearic Islands (19,613 € / ha).

Despite these headline figures prices are quite varied, even within the same province. Other factors such as the size of the property and its main use, the ease of access to the property, its proximity to developed cities, tourist centres and points of interest such as health centres, and the availability of basic services such as water and electricity, all have an influence.