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The recently published Tinsa IMIE General and Large Markets Index for January 2015, indicates that the average price of new and resale housing stood at 2.7% below the level of January 2014. The year-on-year decline of less than 3% is the first one registered on the General Index since June 2008.

The data confirms that the residential housing market is beginning to stabilise. The property market in Spain has seen some considerable consolidation during 2013 when the average price of property in Spain dropped by some 9.2%. A vast improvement was seen in 2014 when the decline in house prices consolidated to around 3%. Tinsa reports that property prices in Spain have declined by 41.6% since the property price crash in 2007.

The continued consolidation of Spanish property prices will depend on economic growth and job creation. If these economic variables perform positively, property prices in Spain are expected to stabilise considerably, even to the point where Spanish property sees a 0% decline in price in the short-term.

Only the "Balearics and Canary Islands" registered positive price growth in January, with an increase of 3.8% year-on-year. The greatest year-on-year decline registered in January was seen in the towns of the "Mediterranean Coast" which saw a decline of 5.2%. The "Capitals and Major Cities" fell by 4.3% compared with the previous year. The "Metropolitan Areas" (towns around the big cities) demonstrated the second best yoy result, after the Islands which showed a 1.7% decline. In the "Rest of the municipalities", average prices dropped by 2.1% when compared with the previous year.

According to Tinsa, the "Mediterranean coast" has seen the greatest accumulated adjustment since 2007, with a decline in property prices of 48.6%. This is followed by the "Capitals and Major Cities" where a reduction in prices of 45.7% has been noted, and the "Metropolitan Areas", where prices have fallen by 43.9%. The Spanish average since 2007 was 41.6%.

The "Balearics and Canary Islands" have accumulated the smallest decline of 31.3% since 2007, followed by the "Rest of the Municipalities", where prices have fallen by an average of 35.9%.

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Russian buyers are now the primary target for developers of luxury properties in their quest for foreign clients. The reason is quite simple: they are the nation who, on average, spend more money when buying a luxury home in Valencia, specifically, 918 700 EUR, this is despite the political crisis between Russia and the European Union following the conflict with Ukraine.

And according to data provided by the General Council of Notaries, buyers from the former Soviet Union now lead the ranking of investments in real estate for property of over 500,000 euros in three Spanish provinces.

The latest figures available, based on the first half of this year, indicate that wealthy foreigners spent 161 million euros on acquiring luxury homes in the Community (214 purchases), 10% more than during the same period last year.

Sources seem to indicate that those wishing to purchase luxury properties in Spain feel that the time is now right to make their investment as, with the worst of the crisis now behind us, you get the feeling that transactions are safe and profitable. The same sources added that the good sales figures "have little impact on the 'granting of residence permits to foreigners who spend more than half a million euros on investment property.

Valencia is actually the third largest market for Russian clients in Spain with 59 transactions completed during the first 6 months of 2014 showing a total investment of 54 million euros. However, in the two Provinces out in front, Catalonia has sold 137 homes to Russiana, at an average price of 1,136 million euros, while in Andalusia there have been 94 properties, costing 98 million at an average price of 933,000 euros. After Valencia in 3rd position, the Canary Islands come next.

The figures show that every Russian investor who buys a house worth more than 500,000 euros in Spain actually spends EUR 1.065 million in the remainder of the country whilst in Valencia the spend averages out at 918,000 EUR with 18% of the national total.

The faithful and traditional British market, which has historically been the major customer of the autonomy in this type of transaction, now ranks second, with 25 purchases and an average spend per property of about 714,000 euros. It would seem that the reason why the British market has declined is that they are changing their preferences to other regions.

Of 397 luxury purchases made by British buyers in Spain only 6% are made within the Valencian Community. Norwegians, Belgians, Germans and the French complete the picture of customers of this elite market in the Community.

But local developers still rely on the British market and a delegation of Provia, the Alicante Promoters Association, has recently moved to London to negotiate agreements with British estate agents in the sale of property in the Alicante region.