Spanish home sales increased by 7% in May, the lowest level since February 2021, in what could be a sign that the post-pandemic boom is starting to cool down.

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There were 63,921 home sales witnessed by Spanish notaries in May according to the latest data from their association. That represents a 7% increase compared to the same month last year, and a 17% increase year to date. Monthly home sales since the start of 2019 are shown in the chart above.

In the next chart you can see the year-on-year change in sales over the same period. If you hover over the chart you can see the percentage change each month. The rate of change is clearly cooling down, which was only to be expected.

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The 12-month rolling sales total in the next chart gives you the big picture of the Spanish property market going back to the bubble of the 2000s, with the figure this May the highest since 2008. From this chart it looks like the post-pandemic boom is still in full swing.

However, if you look at the annualised change in the 12-month rolling total in the next chart, you can see that the rate of change is cooling down. This means the sales totals will start to level off in the coming months.

Finally, a chart showing sales totals (blue columns) and annualised change (in black, right axis) for selected regions of most interest for foreign investors. Sales growth in May was still strong in most regions, in particular the Canaries (+35%) but was only just positive in the Balearics (+1%), and was negative in Madrid and Murcia (-4%).