Bank Of Spain: Home Evictions Down By 20%

21 July 2016 – El Mundo

A total of 17,939 homes were evicted by court order in 2015, up by 11.3% compared with 2014, of which 77% related to primary residences. Nevertheless, only 902 of those properties were occupied, which represents a 20.1% decrease compared with 2014, according to data from the Bank of Spain, which shows that the aforementioned increase was concentrated in the eviction of empty primary residences (35.7%).

In addition, the issuing bank states that 82% of the mortgages that gave rise to forced evictions of occupied homes, both primary residences and others – corresponding to 1,112 properties, down by 18.2% – were originated in or before 2007.

The lower level of activity in terms of evictions is also observed in the data relating to law enforcement involvement in property evictions. In this way, only 14 such interventions were recorded in 2015, down by 44%. Of those, less than half were carried out in primary residences.

If we add together the legal and voluntary proceedings during 2015, there was a 3.8% decrease in the total number of homes handed over, to 36,929 – i.e. 0.57% of all mortgages – which in the case of primary residences amounted to 2.4%, with 29,327 properties.

More than half of the homes handed over were done so voluntarily

The number of voluntary home hand overs decreased by 14.8% last year, to 18,990, with a reduction of 20.1% in the case of primary residences. Thus, voluntary home hand overs accounted for 51.4% of the total.

On the other hand, there were 16,175 “daciones en pago”, down by 12.4% compared with 2014, which accounted for 85.2% of all voluntary home hand overs. Of those, 81.5% related to primary residences, down by 19.9%.

Other data provided by the Bank of Spain indicates that the total number of mortgages granted for house purchases amounted to 6.3 million at the end of 2015, down by 1.1% compared to a year earlier.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake