The post-pandemic Spanish housing boom has run its course, as home sales decline 18% in December 2022.

There were 59,730 home sales witnessed by Spanish notaries in the final month of 2022, a decline of 18% compared to the previous year, according to figures just published by the notaries association of Spain.

As you can see from the chart above, growth in sales has been on a declining trend since the star of last year, going from +36% in January 2022 to -18% in December. That said, December sales were higher than in 2019, and one of the highest in the last decade, as illustrated in the next chart.

Looking at the 12-month rolling sales total, which smooths out the monthly ups and downs and gives us a better idea of the underlying trend, the market is clearly coming off the boil and the year-on-year figure (the blue area line in the chart below) is moving sharply down.

Price-wise in terms of €/sqm the average price of property in Spain increased by just 0.6% over 12 months to the end of December, ending the year at 1,590€/sqm, down from a high of 1,694€/sqm in the middle of the year, and still significantly below the prices of around 1,800€/sqm that were common in Spain more than 15 years ago. The chart below illustrates the post-pandemic boom in prices coming to an end.

Looking at the regional picture, sales were down the most in the Balearics (-32%) and the least in Murcia (-8%), as illustrated by the final chart below. Prices went from +13% in the Canaries to -6% in the Balearics. You can use the two tables below to get figures for other areas of interest to foreign buyers.

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