NOTARIES: House prices and sales up almost everywhere in 2015
By Mas Property
on Thu Apr 28 2016
The end-of-year market report for 2015 from the General Council of Notaries reveals that house prices and sales rose in almost all autonomous regions last year, though the figures also showed a slowdown in the last quarter.
HOME SALES
Home sales increased in every autonomous region last year with the exception of Castille-La Mancha, a landlocked region that does not benefit from foreign demand. Nationally, sales were up 9.2% last year, the second year of recovery in sales, but down from the 20.7% increase clocked up in 2014.
On an annualized basis, sales rose by 5.2% in Q1, 16.3% in Q2, 17% in Q3, and just 0.8% in Q4, so sales growth slowed dramatically at the end of the year. However, the latest figures from the notaries show sales back on the up and up in the first two months of this year.
By region, sales were up a fizzy 16.5% in the Balearics, 14.1% in Murcia, 12.2% in the Canaries, 10.4% in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, 9.4% in Andalusia, and 6.4% in Madrid.
HOUSE PRICES
The average price of property in Spain was 1,278 €/m2 at the end of last year. Price change varied enormously by regions.
Prices rose the most in the Balearics (+4.8%) followed by the Canaries (+3.9%), Murcia (+3.6%), Andalusia (+2.4%) and Catalonia (+2%). All these regions have a coastline benefit from foreign demand.
On the other hand, prices also fell in many regions, in some cases dramatically. House prices plunged 16.2% in the Navarre region, and by 8.1% in Castille-La Mancha.
The maps above of sales (on the left) and prices (on the right) help illustrate how Spanish regions with a Mediterranean coastline (and the Canaries in the Atlantic) are doing much better, in large part thanks to foreign demand.
Source: Notaries and Spanish Property Insight