Figures published by Fastighetsbyrån, part of Swedish banking group Swedbank, suggest Swedish and Norwegian property buyers have pushed hard into the Spanish residential property market, as British and German buyers have withdrawn in the past half-decade.

Figures for property transactions over the past four years provided by Fastighetsbyrån's Spanish market business The Real Estate Agency, suggest that Spanish property transactions involving foreign residents from the UK, Germany, Sweden and Norway increased 10% in 2011 compared to 2010.

However this total masks some significant trends affecting buyers from individual countries. Purchases by buyers from the UK dropped another 6% last year, but those involving Germans were up 5%, Swedes up 46%, and Norwegians up 61%.

Over the four year period, the number of UK buyers has dropped by 65% and German buyers by 3%. However, the number of Norwegian buyers is up 108%, and Swedes by 138%. The total market is still down 33% from its 2007 peak, the figures also suggest.

Daniel Nilsson, regional head at The Real Estate Agency, said: "The Swedish economy has been much better than compared with, say, the UK. And the Swedish krona has been strong at the same time that prices along the Spanish coasts have dropped 30% to 40%. This has made it possible for many Swedes to realise their dreams of living in warmer latitudes."

Despite the downturn in sales to Britons, Fastighetsbyrån is planning a business push into the UK to attract more buyers to the Spanish market.

Through its existing Swedish business, the company intermediated some 36,000 property deals worth about SEK50bn (€5.7bn) during 2011.