The Economic sanctions imposed by the European Union are beginning to make a dent among the Russian citizens that have properties in the province of Alicante, who have begun to put their homes up for sale to get liquidity. A decision that in some cases is taken as a precaution, with the aim of have the money available in the face of any urgency that may arise for them or their families as a result of the conflict, but that on many other occasions they are taking for pure needgiven the impossibility of receiving income from their country to cover their expenses.
This is what various real estate agents in the province assure this newspaper, which since the war broke out have registered a constant trickle of clients of this nationality who come to their establishments to offer their properties. “People are scared, they don’t know what’s going to happen and they prefer to liquidate their assets for what might happen”, explains the CEO of the Torrevieja real estate company Marsol Internacional, Pedro Menarguezwhich calculates in a 30% the increase in properties for sale from Russian citizens since the conflict began.
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“It also happened in 2008 with many owners from Madrid. When you need cash the first thing you put up for sale is the beach house”, says Menarguez.
The agencies of Benidorm, another of the areas of the province that concentrate a greater volume of Russian owners, along with Altea, are also noticing it. “There’s a lot Russian women who live here with their children, while the husband continues in his country taking care of their businesses, and that now they cannot receive the money they need to meet daily expenses”, says the CEO of Visual Home, Juan Carlos Gallegowhich assures that since the beginning of the military offensive launched by Vladimir Putin, he receives several calls every day from clients in this situation.
In these cases, the most usual thing is that, at the same time that they put their house up for sale, looking for a rental or a smaller hometo stay, according to Gallego. And the same thing is happening with Russian investors who bought apartments to put them on the rental market.
As is often the case, the word has already spread and real estate agents are also beginning to receive calls from bargain hunters who ask regarding the properties that the Russians sell, thinking that they will be able to get a house at an advantageous price. However, the truth is that most of the owners are putting their houses up for sale at market price, with some exceptions in which the owner is a bit more in a hurry, according to the same sources.
mortgage concern
Although most of the Russians who bought houses in the province in recent years did so in cash, there were also others who got into debt and now do not know how to deal with the mortgage. “We have already received several inquiries from customers who are concerned that They don’t know if they will be able to pay. It’s all quite complicated,” says the owner of K&N Elite, the Ukrainian Ihor Katrych.
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Some affected are turning to other compatriots to lend them money, which they pay back through a transfer in their own country. A fairly ruinous business, at the moment, given the collapse of the ruble. There are also those who are already beginning to look for existing cracks to bypass the lock imposed by international sanctions. For example, some resort to relatives who have in Russia so that they move and open a current account in the neighboring Kazakhstan, from where they later make a transfer to their accounts in Spain. Of course, none of this guarantees that they will be able to dispose of the money later, given the strict controls imposed by Spanish entities, by mandate of the money laundering prevention authorities.
Russian citizens became the second market in importance among foreign home buyers at the beginning of the last decade, when the ruble was at its best once morest the euro. However, following the invasion of Crimea and the imposition of the first package of sanctions in 2014, the figure was halved and, although it later recovered, it fell once more with the outbreak of the pandemic.
