Foreign investment in Spain

2023: 1,000 projects with foreign direct investment

The number of projects with foreign direct investment in European countries in 2022 France gained an advantage thanks to the conflict between Germany and Russia, which made its electricity prices much lower

2017

49.8 billion euros. Leading the US

Britain in 2017 retained the status of the largest European investor in Spain, despite Brexit. At the global level, the United Kingdom is second only to the United States in terms of investment in Spain.

The UK accounts for 13.1% of foreign investment in Spain, totalling more than €49.8bn. As reported in the report of the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU did not become an obstacle to investment in Spain, and even in some sense served as an "impetus" for investment.

The study also notes that in the second half of 2017 there was a decrease in the flow of British investment in Catalonia, which, however, did not prevent it from reaching record levels in the country as a whole. Over the past 5 years, Madrid has led in terms of British investment, which has received 5.764 billion euros during this time. It is followed by the Basque Country with 1.78 billion and Catalonia with 1.1 billion euros^[1].

Net investment €24.5 billion (-12.3%)

In 2017, net foreign investment in Spain decreased by 12.3% and amounted to about 24.5 billion euros.

In 2017, foreigners invested 31.1 billion euros in the Spanish real estate sector, thereby making it the leader in investment from abroad.

Foreign investment in Spanish real estate rose 0.7% in 2017 compared to 2016, according to the Spanish Ministry of Economy. In addition, the result of 2017 is 25.6% higher than the average over the past five years and is the highest since 2008.

The real estate sector accounts for 13.2% of the total investment, or 3.1 billion euros. It is followed by the energy sector, in which 2.44 billion euros (10.3%) were invested.

Over a billion euros of investment was received by the sectors of financial services, telecommunications, wholesale trade, production of mineral products, construction and design. The rapid growth of 400% was demonstrated by the consulting services sector.

Most investment in Spain came in 2017 from Luxembourg - almost 5 billion euros, or 21% of the total investment. The top three are also Germany and the United Kingdom, each of which accounts for about 3 billion euros. The United States, of which 2.55 billion euros were received, dropped from first place in 2016 to fourth position. Also, a significant part of investments falls on France (2.3 billion), the Netherlands (2 billion), Switzerland (1.3 billion).

Among the Spanish autonomous regions, Madrid became the most popular among foreign investors. In 2017, foreigners invested more than 14.5 billion euros in the region, which exceeds 60%. For comparison: in 2016, the volume of investment in the Madrid community was 11.6 billion.

Catalonia, in turn, lost almost 40% of its investments, which is associated with a tense political situation. The volume of investments in 2017 decreased to 3.1 billion euros (13%).

In third place in terms of investment in Spain is the Basque Country (2.6 billion euros), followed by the Valencian Community (1.16 billion)^[2].

Foreign investors show the least interest in Rioja, Extremadura, Cantabria, Ceuta and Melilla, in each of which the volume of investments did not exceed 30 million euros.

2016: Britons invest in Spain's telecom and tobacco industry

According to Afi, in 2016, Britons sent the most investments to the Spanish telecommunications sector (15 billion euros) and the tobacco industry (6 billion).

2013: €88.7 billion investment

Foreign investment in Spain in 2013 amounted to 88.758 billion euros. In 2012, another trend prevailed in the movement of financial funds - money from the Iberian kingdom "leaked." The volume of losses in 2012 amounted to €174.338 billion, according to the Bank of Spain newsletter, which publishes the annual balance of the main financial institution of the Iberian kingdom. 2011 was also characterized by capital outflows, which exceeded the 2012 figures by 1.5%.

Analysts draw attention to the fact that the inflow of funds has increased since the third quarter of 2013, when all the calculations GDP of experts in the field of economics began to indicate that the country ended the recession and for the first time in recent years showed growth (in July - September - by 0.1%, in October - December - by 0.2%).

In 2013, 33% of all foreign investment in the Spanish economy was in the real estate sector.

The second place in terms of foreign investment is occupied by the energy sector (19%). In third place is the financial sector and insurance (17%)^[3].

In total, foreigners invested 6.632 billion euros in real estate in Spain. Buyers purchased a wide variety of assets: company offices, real estate branches of banks, shopping centers, apartments, office buildings, hotels, houses and villas.

Among the most notable operations were the sale of Aliseda and Altamira branches owned by Popular and Santander banks, Carrefour's purchase of 63 shopping centers in Spain for 380 million euros, as well as the sale of the famous Agbar high-rise in Barcelona, ​ ​ the new owner of which was Emin Capital. Soon a hotel under the brand name Hyatt will open in this building.

In addition, a new tenant, Cepsa, has appeared in the Foster skyscraper in the capital. The building also changed ownership, which was the Abu Dhabi-based Ipic Foundation. He can buy the skyscraper until 2016 for 450 million euros.

The "bad" bank, state administrations and banks became the main sellers of real estate. They were also joined by the department store El Corte Inglés, which in 2013 got rid of several facilities in Madrid and Barcelona for 150 million euros.

Notes