Apparently approximately according to various sites on the net 1,800 British Citizens have emigrated to Spain on a NLV since it's  introduction  this figure is a unofficial number...due to the fact that the British and Spanish Embassy's  will not confirm the official number if the official number is anything like the unofficial figure of 1,800 ...it's will be extremely embarrassing for the Spanish government. 

Windy. Why would this be extremely embarrassing for the Spanish government?

Kavanagh i think you already known the answer yourself...but to give you a clue the British have been the number one in Spanish property purchase for the last 35 years pre Brexit ...Post Brexit the British are at the bottom of the list according to the Spanish government. 

No they aren't. The Brits are still the highest property purchasers in Spain. You mean for permanent homes only but the holiday home market is still strong among the Brits although not as high as it used to be.

Plus the number of British residents in Spain has gone up by over 25,000 since the new rules were brought in a few years ago. So there were either lots and lots living under the radar or the 1800 NLV issued is a guess. Many other types of visa available.

And considering last year saw a record number of property sales in the Alicante province, I don't think the Spanish government would be particularly bothered about the nationality. 

Mariedav  you are having a laugh aren't you...Romaine and Moroccans are buying more property in Spain than  the British. 

This is the data from a dozen sites regarding sales last year.

Property Insight

20,685 properties were sold to foreigners in the Alicante province in 2022. The British remain the highest purchasers although the number was down to 9% of total sales but 29% of sales to foreigners, Germans next followed by France.

Costa Blanca News

Foreign sales in the Alicante province in the first 3 quarters of 2022 outnumbered the Spanish sales. British sales are well down on the 14 to 15 percent of 2015 but still accounted for the highest number of sales at 9% of all property sold.

The Local

40% of all properties sold in Spain in the first half 2022 were in the Alicante province. The British are the largest percentage of buyers, Germans and French the next largest. Colombia. Italy, Morocco and Russian account for the same number of sales to the British.

Idealista

Between June and September 2022, foreigners bought a record number of homes in Spain accounting for 26,728. The foreigners buying the most number of properties in Spain are the British (9.3%), Germans (8.4%), French (6.2%), Romanians (4.8%), Belgians (4.27%), Dutch (4.1%) and Moroccans (4.1%).

Fuster and Associates

Foreigners bought 94,460 properties in Spain in 2022. 

As far as nationalities of the foreign investors it is worth observing a rise in the diversification, never observed before. The British are no longer the only prominent buyer in Spain, however the statistics show that the foreign investors have grown among other “atypical” nationalieties and altough the British still represent the highest percentage of foreign buyers, they are buying less than ever, due to Brexit. – For example, the British accounted for almost 24% of sales to foreigners in 2015, whereas now it is more divided between other european nationalities.

The highest weights during the fourth quarter were recorded in absolute terms by the British (2,376), Germans (2,018), French (1,409), Romanians (1,114), Belgians (1,073), Italians (1,060), Moroccans (1,054) and Dutch (1.015).#

That's just the first page. I think you are very good at making things up but I'd rather read the people who know rather than those who seem to have a downer on Spain (why didn't you move to Portugal when you sold in Murcia?)

Oh, and not one Romanian or Morrocan has bought in my particular area lately although we do have one Iranian family (and very nice they are too) who have had a holiday home here for many years. The majority buying here are Brits and Scandinavians with a smattering of French.

Have to admit I haven't seen any Romanian or Moroccans in my areas of Spain that have bought houses, Brits yes, and of course Germans, Norwegians, Dutch, couple of Swiss.

And all our neighbours are much of the above, not even seen many French people to be honest, last house I sold was to Norwegians.

Windy, is it a condition that the British must purchase a Spanish property to qualify for a NLV? 

Kavanagh you don't need to purchase a property to apply for a NLV....you can rent  a property..this is something I can't understand  if you own a property outright in Spain you need a disposable income of approximately €37,000 per year per couple for 5 continues years with no concessions  given for owning a property....if you are applying for a NLV and you rent you need to proof of approximately €37,000 disposable income per couple for 5 consecutive years this is rather silly due  to the fact that when you rent you will need to pay rent of approximately €600 per month  for a basic 2 bed apartment how did the Spanish government work that one out I wonder why the Spanish government haven't took this into consideration when applying for a NLV.

Maybe Spain wants us to buy property to ease the over-built empty housing problem but not live their, as for the Spanish government not working out the long term effect this could have, isn't that pretty much like all governments, such as ours for instance.

Hi Windy

So NLV and property sales are not to a certain extent the same. So we are really discussing a subject ‘NLV’ that we have no official or reliable data on.

With regards to property sales, second homes to non-residents are irrelevant regarding NLV.

With regards to NLV, why would elderly ex-pats buy rather than rent, their life expectancy would not be feasible for long-term investments.

The NLV disposable income levels have always been an EU-influenced figure calculated on the back of a fag packet. No one needs €37,000 a year to live in Spain, maybe in New York and Singapore.

Kavanagh...the vast majority of holiday home owners in Spain buy property way before retirement they do so  hoping that by the time full time retirement comes up the property will be mortgage free to make retirement easier  having no rent to pay... but for some reason or another the Spanish government are not taking mortgage free property ownership into consideration and and refusing to make any concessions for this ...hence the fact that a NLV property owner still needs proof  of the same amount as someone that will be renting on a NLV ..the funds required are approximately €37,000 per couple per yearfor 5 consecutive years...

Windy, property purchases by non-residents are irrelevant to your subject ‘’Only 1,800 British Citizens have entered Spain on a NLV since its introduction.’’

Kavanagh holiday home owners can't afford to relocate to Spain on a NLV as they have spent the money required  for a NLV on paying a loan / mortgage  to buy the property they still need proof of savings of €37,000 per couple per year for 5 consecutive years...a couple that wants  too relocate to Spain from the UK 🇬🇧 and rents a property will need proof of savings of €37,000 per couple  per year for 5 consecutive years  ...the moral of the story is don't buy a property just rent one .

Yes Windy, thanks for the education.