New-build property construction on the way back up in Spain.

The number of residential properties for which construction licences were granted in Spain during the first eight months of 2017 reached 53,977, according to data produced by the Ministry of Development, reflecting an increase of 25.9 per cent over the same period in 2016.

This continues an upward trend which began in early 2015 following a slump which saw annual totals for building licences drop from 865,000 in 2006, at the height of the speculative property boom, to just 34,288 in 2013, a fall of 96 per cent. However, since 2014 the downward trend has been reversed, first with an increase of 1.7 per cent in that year, and then with successive rises of 42.5 per cent in 2015 and 28.9 per cent last year.

The construction sector was one of the worst hit during the years of economic crisis and is still a long way short of recovering an acceptable level of activity in the residential sector, but nonetheless these are encouraging signs, not only for those involved in building but also for the property market as a whole: an increase in construction indicates that the excess stock of completed but unsold homes is now being reduced significantly, correcting the imbalance between supply and demand.

Source: Spain News Today, November 2017