Notaries report 19.5 per cent increase in Spanish property sales in March.
By Mas Property
on Fri Jun 02 2017
The latest data published by Spain’s notaries show that during March of this year the number of residential property sales finalised reached 48,695, representing an increase of 19.5% in comparison to the same month in 2016.
Part of this increase can no doubt be attributed to the fact that there were more working days in March as Easter fell in April, but at the same time the figures are a continuation of the upward trend in sales figures which began in early 2014 and which has resulted in year-on-year increases in all but a couple of months since then.
Given that there is often a period of a month or two between deeds being signed before a notary and the official registration of the new deeds, it is reasonable to suppose that the notaries figures for March are related to the significant increase in property registry figures reported in April, when the highest figure for six years was reported.
However, on the other side of the coin is the notaries data regarding the average price of the properties which changed hand during March: they report that this was 1.3% lower than in the equivalent month of 2016 at 1,277 euros per square metre, and this reinforces the notion that although in some areas property is increasing in value the trend is far from universal in all parts of Spain. At the same time, though, it is also worth noting that the overall decrease was due entirely to the fall in the average price of detached houses (-6.2%), as for flats and apartments the figure was stable.
The figures contained in the latest notaries report also tell a similar tale in terms of mortgages: during March there were 21,818 new property mortgages signed, 18% more than twelve months previously, but at the same time there was a fall in average loan capital of 5.9% to 122,907 euro. In other words, 44.8% of all property purchases were made with the assistance of a mortgage, and in those cases the loan accounted for an average of 77.8% of the agreed sale price.
Source: Spain News Today, May 2017.