Home sales break 13 months of consecutive declines after rising 5.8% in February

Last February, the sale and purchase of homes registered an increase of 5.8% compared to the same month in 2023, up to a total of 52,796 operations, as reported this Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). With the advance in February, home sales put an end to 13 consecutive months of year-on-year declines. The year-on-year rebound in home sales in February has been due, above all, to the increase in transactions on new apartments, which grew by double digits. The sale of existing homes also increased, although at a more moderate pace. Specifically, the sale and purchase of second-hand homes rose 2.2% year-on-year in February, totaling 41,268 operations, while transactions carried out on new apartments shot up 20.8%, to 11,528 operations.

92.9% of the homes transferred by sale in February were free homes and 7.1% were protected. In total, the purchase and sale of free homes increased by 6.7% year-on-year, to 49,033 transactions, while the purchase and sale of subsidized homes fell by 4.7%, to a total of 3,763 transactions. In an inter-monthly rate (February over January), the sale of homes fell by 2.9%, while in the first two months of 2024 it has increased by 1.6%, with an advance of 11.8% in the case of new homes and a decline of 0.7% in used homes.

The Association of Construction Developers of Spain (APCE) points out that the data “show the rise of new construction housing in real estate activity, which with more than 11,500 operations, registers its highest level of activity in the last 10 years” . “The great imbalance between supply and demand for housing explains why the little that is produced has a quick exit. Housing creation is at levels much lower than what we need, and as long as this happens, prices will not slow down their upward trend. If we want to put a stop to the housing problem, it is essential that the Land Law reform project see the light of day as soon as possible,” says the general secretary of APCE, Beatriz Toribio.

The professor of Economics at the Pompeu Fabra University, José García Montalvo, tells this newspaper that “the data have been good, but predictable, given that the banks have stopped the rise in mortgage rates and, in some cases, have begun to “lower them to gain market share where it will not be as easy as last year to increase the interest margin without increasing volume, since the forecast is that rates will fall.”

Sales increase in 13 communities

By autonomous community and in absolute values, Andalusia was the region that carried out the most home sales during the second month of the year, with 9,606, followed by the Valencian Community (9,154), Catalonia (8,518) and Madrid (6,323). Thirteen territories sold more homes in February than in the same month of 2023. The sharpest increases occurred in Navarra (+50.6%), Galicia (+38.4%) and Murcia (+19.5%), while the most moderate were for Madrid (+0.4%) and the Basque Country (+1.4%). At the other extreme, four regions reduced home sales in February compared to the same month in 2023: Canary Islands (-12%), Balearic Islands (-10.3%), Andalusia (-1.5%) and Castilla y León ( -1%).

The total number of properties transferred increases by 4.4%

The properties transferred in the property registries, from public deeds carried out previously, reached 190,717 last February, 4.4% more than in the same month of 2023. 7% more properties were transferred through sales than a year before, while those transmitted by donation fell by 1.2% year-on-year; Those transmitted by inheritance decreased by 1.6%, and exchange operations fell by 3.9%.

87% of the sales in February corresponded to urban properties, which include homes, and 13% to rural properties. Sales of urban properties rose 7.3% year-on-year, while those of rural properties increased 5.3% compared to February 2023, totaling 91,799 and 13,666 transactions, respectively.