Exploring the Spatial Link Between Tourism and Construction: How Touristic Landmarks Affect the Second-Home Market in Spain

The rise in second homes in recent decades is an interesting phenomenon, especially from a tourism perspective. The main motivations behind the purchase of a second dwelling are compensation (supplementing needs for preferences not covered by the primary home), lifecycle events (return or retirement migration) and affluence (real estate investment). Taking into account this framework, we evaluate the effect of socio-economic, locational and climatic features on the share of second homes in Spanish municipalities in 2001 and 2011, controlling for the spatial dimension. We find that, from a global perspective, life cycle stands as a salient driver behind the distribution of second homes in the country in both years. However, when the variability of the impacts across the territory is examined, interesting relationships emerge between the different motivations as reflected in the patterns of each factor.