This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
The Spanish property market expanded by 4% in October, the second lowest rate this year, reveal the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
There were 24,752 home sales inscribed in the Property Register in October (not counting subsidised housing), up 4% on the same time last year, but significantly lower than the 15% rise clocked up in September.
The Spanish property market has grown almost every month this year by double-digit rates, so a 4% rise in October looks bad in comparison, with the exception of March, when sales rose by less than 1%, as illustrated by the next chart.
NEW VS. RESALE
A big drop in new home sales was partly to blame for the lower growth. New home sales fell by 34%, whilst resale transactions rose by 20%.
New and resale markets are going in different directions in this recovery, as illustrated by this chart.
REGIONAL MARKETS
Barcelona is still leading the recovery, with year-to-date sales up 19% compared to the same period last year. At the other end of the scale, sales are down 5% in Huelva, home to the West Costa de la Luz.
LOOKING BACK, Q3 FIGURES STILL SHOW STRONG GROWTH
The Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) also published housing market figures this week, in this case for the third quarter, showing 93,528 homes sold in the period – an annualised increase of 16.3%, and the largest number of residential property transactions in Q3 since 2009 (and the seventh consecutive quarter of rising sales).
According to this source, the cumulative number of homes sold over 12 months to the end of September was 398,124, an increase of 14.6% compared to the previous 12 months.
New home sales were 10.9% of the total (10,152), and resales 89.1% (83,376). Just 3,558 of the sales in the period were Government subsidised homes (VPO).
Q3 transactions rose in almost all Spain’s autonomous regions, led by Murcia (+50%), La Rioja (+39,4%), Cantabria (+33,7%), Catalonia (+24,1%), and Aragon (+22,5%). By municipality, the largest number of sales took place in Madrid (6,770), Barcelona (3,275), Valencia (1,659), Sevilla (1,385), Zaragoza (1,363), Málaga / Costa del Sol (1,211), Marbella (1,184) and Torrevieja (1,138).
