The number of homes sold in Spain was up 12.1 per cent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, boosted by the increasing number of foreign buyers.
A total of 91,338 homes were sold in the quarter, the best second quarter since 2010, the Ministry of Public Works reports. Of the total, 16.4 percent of the sales were to foreign residents, as the number of purchases by non-Spanish citizens rose for the 12th consecutive quarter.
In the 12 months from July 2013 to June 2014, 337,115 homes were sold in Spain, a 12.2 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to the Ministry’s data.
The move toward a trend of increasing sales is surely a good sign for the market, especially any evidence that a consistent growth trend is developing. And the Ministry numbers reflects the foreign market’s increasing return to Spain property, as detailed in SPI founder Mark Stucklin’s recent analysis.
The second quarter data also reflect clearer year-to-year comparisons, since “these two terms are not influenced by tax changes,” the Ministry notes.
Five autonomous communities and two cities posted gains, led by a 12.2 per cent increase in the Canary Islands. Other areas continued to see sales declines, “but much more moderate than in previous quarters”, the Ministry says.
UPDATED 03/10/2014
The following chart illustrates how sales in the second quarter were the highest since 2010. The table above refers to 12-month cumulative sales to the end of Q2, in which period sales were down an annualised 2.6% at a national level.
David Shaw says:
I do not understand this. The overall figures are down not up!
Stephen says:
That’s churnalism for you. Even the Financial Times has taken it up. Real Journalists are on Zero hours contracts.
Mark Stücklin says:
David, sorry, the table is confusing in the context of this article (as it was in the official press release). The update should clear up the confusion.
Stephen says:
I don’t understand any of it. I must be reading different news to most on here. No one read ElPais today?
July saw worse falls in house sales for 5 years. Down 17.7%
August sales down 1.1% compared with last August.
According to Canal Sur Malaga property sales did even worse…down 15.5%. Yet on here I am reading of sales from the first two quarters?
Mark Stücklin says:
El Pais today reports the latest data from the INE, which I’ll deal with as soon as I can.
The fall in the sales recorded by the INE just reflects the drop already reported by the notaries, which I wrote about here without any sugar coating, http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/2014/09/16/home-sales-prices-tank-july/. So this comes as no surprise.
The problem is conflicting data published by different arms of the public administration, not to mention the appraisal companies. We can’t stop that, but we will try and pull it all tother better in future.
The fact is the data set reported in this article showed the best Q2 for home sales since 2010, as it says in the headline. Would you rather we lied or suppressed this fact? I get the impression you are trying to suggest we mislead people with biased reporting. Is that what you think?