Spanish house prices rise for first time in six years: more details

[Mark Stücklin]

The latest house market figures from the Property Register came out yesterday, for the second quarter of the year. This was covered in the blog – see Spain Home Prices Increase for First Time in Six Years – but for anyone interested her is more detail on the figures.

• The House Price Index published by the Property Register using the Case-Shiller methodology rose an annualised 0.97% in Q2, the first increase in this index for six years
• The index rose 1.5% on a quarterly basis, the third consecutive quarterly rise
• Peak to present, the index is down 32% back where it was in 2003
• 78,500 home sales were inscribed in the property register in Q2, a fall of 5.5% compared to the preceding quarter
• Home sales inscribed in the register in the period were 78,464, down 5.5% compared to the previous quarter, but significantly above Q4 2013, when the number of sales inscribed troughed at 72,560, point of the Registrars.
• New home sales were the main cause of falling sales, down a quarterly 19% to 30,605 sales, or 39% of total sales, and the lowest level of new home sales on record.
• Resales were 47,859 in the period, 61% of the total, up 5.7%.
• 12-month cumulative sales were the lowest on record at 310,864, in part due to the dive in sales to 149,378 in the second half of 2013. Sales have picked up this year, reaching 161,486 in the first half of the year.
• Andalusia was the region with the most sales (15,583) followed by Catalonia (11,980), the Valencian Community (11,591) and Madrid (10,522).
• House purchases by foreign buyers “don’t stop growing” say the registrars in their press release. Foreign buyers were 13% of the market in Q2, a new high.
• The British were the biggest group, at almost 16% of the foreign market, followed by the French (10%), Russians (8%), Germans (7.5%), Belgians (7%) and Swedes (6%).
• The report also reveals that mortgage defaults and foreclosure proceedings are still rising, up 2% to 18,921 in Q2. The problem is biggest in Andalusia, followed by Catalonia and the Valencian Community.

Personally I doubt that Spanish house prices are rising at a national level, though I don’t doubt they are rising in some local market segments. I think the index is flawed.

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