Spanish Estate Agents targeting Russian and Chinese buyers

Andrey Maslak, president of the Russian Foundation for Economic Cooperation and Development, reports that there is a growing number of Estate Agents in Spain that are beginning to switch focus to Russian and Chinese clients as opposed to traditional buyers from the UK and other Western European countries.

Maslak commented, "The demand for Spanish residential property during the crisis fell by 70%, since the market was practically abandoned by the UK buyers, which for many years were leaders in terms of demand for Spanish property."

"However Russians are still dominating in the Spanish real estate market even during the times of crisis", he continued.

As such many of the Spanish real estate agencies are now starting to hire Russian-speaking staff and creating the Russian language versions of their websites in order to approach a wider audience.

Maslak added that the 2010 residential property markets in Spain are likely to fall to original construction cost in many cases.

The cost of new developments in Spain are also expected to fall to the level of construction costs, while more and more property in the secondary housing market will be offered at "the price of land" - In other words, it will be more profitable to buy already existing housing than the land for building a new home", said Maslak.