Spanish home sales in October, and in the year to date, were significantly higher than before the pandemic, suggesting that we are seeing a pandemic boom in real estate investment. It was the best October for home sales since 2007.

There were 56,958 home sales in October witnessed by Spanish notaries in October,, up 14% on the same month last year. The chart above plots monthly home sales since January 2019 (left axis) and the year on year change each month (right axis).

Year to date there were 539.482 sales (first 10 months), up 43% on the same period last year. A big increase on last year was to be expected, given the economic disruption of the pandemic last year, including several months of total lockdown.

But sales were up 9% over the same period compared to 2019, before the pandemic. That shows that the market has more than made up the ground it lost to the pandemic. All the figures come from the Association of Spanish Notaries.

If you look at the 12-month rolling total of sales you get an idea of the bigger trend. In the next chart, with the columns showing sales, and the line showing the annualised change (right axis) you can see that the market was already cooling down before the pandemic, with sales shrinking from July 2019, and then plunging when the pandemic struck. This year, in contrast, sales appear to be booming. 

Regional Spanish home sales in October 2021

Looking at the Spanish regions of most interest to foreign buyers, home sales in October, and in the year to date, were higher than last year and 2019 in all regions except the Canaries. October sales in the Balearics were very strong, up 39% on last year and 9% compared to 2019, followed by Analusia where sales were up 21% and 18% respectively. In the first 10 months of the year sales were up more than 40% in all regions compared to 2020, and by double digits in all regions bar the Balearics (+6%) and the Canaries (-5%).  The following charts illustrate all these observations.

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It looks like there is a mini-housing boom in full swing post-pandemic, no doubt also encouraged by low interest rates and rising inflation.