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It takes almost a year to sell a home in Spain

11 months to find a buyer
11 months to find a buyer

344 days, or almost a year. That’s the average time it takes to sell a property in Spain, according to new research by Idealista, a Spanish property portal. Unless vendors get real and drop their prices the time on the market “is likely to carry on getting longer,” warns the report from Idealista.

The situation isn’t quite so bad in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain’s biggest and most liquid property markets. It now takes 304 days to find a buyer in Barcelona, and 320 days in Madrid, but “just a year ago it took 217 and 242 days respectively,” point out Idealista. So in the course of a year the time it takes to sell a home in Barcelona has increased by 87 days, and by 78 days in Madrid.

Compared to 5 years ago, the time it takes to sell property in Spain has increased dramatically. In 2004 it took just 76 days in Barcelona and 86 days in Madrid. That was when the property market was boiling and vendors could basically dictate their terms.

Avila (in Castilla y Leon) is the province where it takes longest to sell a home (523 days), followed by Segovia, Castellon (Costa Azahar), Alicante (Costa Blanca), and Granada (Costa Tropical). Homes sell the quickest in Albacete (Castilla La Mancha) at just 222 days, followed by Pontevedra in Galicia (268 days) and Guipúzcoa in The Basque Country (283) days.

Idealista’s study was based on homes that have actually sold. “All those properties with asking prices beyond the reach of real demand were not included because they haven’t sold, and until their prices are reduced they won’t sell,” warns Fernando Encinar, head of research at Idealista.

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