ON THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE YEAR, 133.989 UNITS WERE SOLD. TRANSACTIONS ON NEW PROPERTY INCREASED ON A 14.4% ANNUAL, BEFORE THE 1.4% ON RESALE PROPERTY.
SOURCE: SPANISH REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE
16/05/2019
Those 133.989 units sold mean a growth of 3.7% in respect to the first quarter of 2018, when 129.164 units were sold, according to the data published by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE).
Such is a slight growth compared to the 14.4% on new property, as in 2018, only 22,810 units were sold before the 26.100 sold on the same period this year.
The year started maintaining the intensity on the increase of property price, in line with what has been happening since 2015. Thus, annual increase on property price was 8.7% during the first quarter, according to the registrar real estate statistic published by the Colegio de Registradores. “The annual levels on property Price are currently on amounts close to those reached on the second half of 2010 and the end of 2005. Therefore, we are under the maximum historical levels, but not so distant anymore”.
Real Estate market is still quite heterogeneous. In March sales decreased on País Vasco (4.4%), Comunidad Valenciana (1.9%), and Aragón (4.9%). Canary Islands is where the market experienced the most drastic decrease with 10.1% inter-annual, and Baleares with 6.6%, as the high prices reached on those markets experienced a significant increase in the last years. In fact, the acquisitions carried out by foreign investors decreased around 12% in those regions in the last semester. In other regions, there was an increase, particularly in La Rioja (44.5%), Cantabria (27.8%), Castilla La Mancha (23.8%) and Andalucía (19.7%).
Under that tendency on the average national of 6.8% increase, we have Madrid (5.35%) and Cataluña (2.6%), showing that transactions also lost some dynamism in the most active markets. Activity is becoming moderate in the four communities that were leaders in the market recovery and where prices more raised in the last years. The different statistics that measure the real estate sector will show during most of 2019 inter-annual increases and falls that reflect the tendency to stability of real estate market. In the last few years we have seen as the replacement and latent demand entered the market, and now we are starting a period of more moderate activity.
