by FSBO 
Are you looking to sell your property in Spain fast? Well, chances are that you’re going to find a wealthy Venezuelan buyer for it, as Venezuelans are as of today the heavily involved in the Spanish real estate market. Spain, a country on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, includes 17 autonomous regions with diverse geography and cultures. Capital city Madrid is home to the Royal Palace and Prado museum, housing works by European masters. Segovia has a medieval castle (the Alcázar) and an intact Roman aqueduct. Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, is defined by Antoni Gaudí’s whimsical modernist landmarks like the Sagrada Família church.
Indeed, Venezuelans are always on the lookout for properties for sale in Spain. Any real estate agent you talk to in Spain will tell you about the massive interest from Venezuelans who have managed to flee their country with at least some of their wealth intact.
Venezuela itself is in complete economic collapse. At the time of this writing, $1USD = 248,409 Venezuelan Bolívar! The inflation rate is currently 108,000% per year and is expected to go up to 1 million% soon.
These are shocking numbers, unbelievable numbers, especially when you consider that Venezuela was only 20 years ago the richest country in South America.
Today, hospitals have no equipment or medicines, retail stores have empty shelves and most people don’t get enough food to survive. It is a common sight to witness even upper class families rummaging through garbage for food and other essentials.
It is a sad, sad situation, and it’s no surprise that many wealthy Venezuelans are now desperately trying to find a home in Spain. Indeed, just take a walk around the up-market district of Madrid, you will be surprised to see the number of homes that have been purchased by Venezuelans only in the last 12 months.
Home prices in Madrid have gone up by 17 percent this year, and you can attribute this to the huge demand for homes in the Spanish capital from rich Venezuelan buyers.
What’s interesting is that almost every wealthy person in Venezuela wants to move to Spain, whether they are a part of the ruling dispensation, who have benefited massively from the Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro regime, or a part of the opposition.
One famous Venezuelan, or rather, the father of a famous Venezuelan who has moved to Spain and bought a house here is Leopoldo López Gil. Gil is the father of the leading opposition politician in Venezuela Leopoldo López, who is under house arrest back home.
Mr. Gil laments in an interview with the New York Times, “I now sometimes find myself sitting in restaurants in Madrid right next to people whom I wouldn’t feel comfortable ever seeing in Caracas.”
Indeed, most of the rich Venezuelans who have moved to Spain are those who made big fortunes in oil and have managed to stash away most of their financial assets in banks in Sweden and other safe locations.
Rolando Seijas, the founder of SNB Capital and a Venezuelan himself, says, “The big fortunes in Venezuela have always been connected among themselves and dependent on having a good relationship with the state. We’re here as survivors who know that the bridges to our home country have probably been burned.”
If you have a property for sale in Spain, for sure you will be sad like everyone about the situation in Venezuela. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of the increased interest in the Spanish property market because of a surplus of Venezuelan buyers.
