Alex Trelinski
NORTHERN Spain led an important turn round for February property sales in the country- after a year of monthly declines in real estate deals.
The National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed on Monday that there was a 5.8% increase in February compared to a year earlier, reversing a trend of sales falls.
The regions with the highest increases were Navarre (50.6%), Galicia (38.4%) and Murcia(19.5%).
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On the other hand, the Canary Islands (-12.0%), the Balearic Islands (-10.3%) and Andalucia (-1.5%) registered the largest year-on-year decreases.
A total of 52,796 operations were registered in February, according to the INE.
New-build homes showed a big improvement on a year earlier, growing by 20.8% (11,528 transactions), while second-hand homes grew by 2.2%;
However, second-hand housing dominates the market, with a share of 78.2% in February, compared to 21.8% for new housing.
In month-on-month terms (February over January), home sales fell by 2.9%, while in the first two months of 2024 it increased by 1.6%, with a rise of 11.8% for new homes and a decline of 0.7% in the second-hand market.
There is optimism among analysts going into the year, according to Maria Matos from online property portal, Fotocasa.
“Overall, 2023 was a year that showed a downward trend and in the first two months of 2024 this dynamic has been totally broken,” she commented.
“It is also possible that during the second half of the year, demand will increase due to the expected fall in interest rates from June onwards,“ Matos added.
One issue though is the availability of housing, according to internet portal idealista and their spokesperson, Francisco Iñareta.
“Although the volume of transactions in February is close to that recorded in February 2022, housing supply continues to fall sharply in the main markets, which makes it impossible to grow transaction figures strongly and suggests there will be further property price rises.”
