The Spanish property market shrank 48% in April year on year, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Excluding social housing, there were 26,251 property transactions in April, compared to 50,815 a year before.
This news will come as a blow to optimists who saw a glimmer of hope in the figures for March, when transactions fell by ‘only’ 26% year on year, a distinct improvement on previous months, and actually rose compared to February. Not only do the figures for April fail to develop a positive trend, they are the worst sales figures on record.
On a month to month basis, sales in April were 16% below March, and on a year to date basis the market is 39% smaller than it was in the first 4 months of last year, as measured by number of transactions.
Breaking the market down by property age, resales plunged by 52% to 13,535, whilst new builds were down 43% to 15,682.
By region, sales fell the most in Castellon province -63% (Costa Azahar), followed by the Balearics -59%, Las Palmas province -58%, and the Valencian Community -56%. Sales fell the least in Málaga -38% (Costa del Sol), Cantabria and Galicia -33%.
It should be noted however, that thanks to Easter, April this year was 2 working days shorter than last year, which partly explains the dramatic drop in property sales this April.
