67
67

INE: País Vasco & Aragón Led Rise In House Sales In June

7 August 2015 – Expansión

Recovery / The real estate sector consolidated its recovery in June, thanks to the second hand market. The Páis Vasco and Aragón were the regions that saw the highest increases in the number of house sales.

“If the current trend continues, 2015 will be the year that marks the before and after in the real estate sector”. The residential market is continuing to build on its stabilising trend, after seven years in decline.

Yesterday, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirmed that: house sales soared by 17% in June to record ten consecutive months of increases. According to Manuel Gandarias, Research Director at pisos.com, if the trend continues, 2015 will signal the start of the recovery in the sector.

This increase, which is the largest since March 2014, is due to strong growth in the sales of second hand homes (27,947 transactions), which shot up by 44.5% YoY. By contrast, the sale of new homes (6,631) plummeted by 30.6% compared with the same month last year.

Experts say that the second hand market, which accounts for 80% of all sales, is the true barometer of the current health of the sector. They also explain that the data recorded in June relates to transactions signed in April and the beginning of May.

Thanks to this surge in the sale of second hand homes, increases have been observed across the whole of Spain, except for in Galicia, where sales decreased by 6.5%. The greatest increases were recorded in the País Vasco (40.5%), Aragón (35.3%) and the Canary Islands (31.8%), although the region with the highest number of sales per 100,000 inhabitants was Castilla y León (718), followed by Aragón (639) and La Rioja (605). At the other end of the spectrum, Asturias and Galicia were the regions with the least activity, recording just 46 sales each per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Castilla-La Mancha, with 53. In absolute terms, Andalucía led the market, recording 6,129 transactions in total, up by 13.9% from a year earlier.

Positive climate

Real estate experts believe that the positive sentiment in the residential market has now taken root and that the end of the crisis is near. (…).

According to Gandarias, “the granting of mortgages, which is fundamental for the increase in house sales, is flowing better than expected. Households have become less indebted and now have more (disposable) income”. In fact, according to INE, the signing of mortgages to purchase homes increased by 10.9% in May and has now recorded a whole year of consecutive increases. Moreover, residential prices increased by 1.8% in 2014 and by 1.5% during Q1 2015.

In monthly terms, house sales grew by 3.8%, the first increase in the month of June since the start of the crisis. Almost 90% of transactions related to unsubsidised homes, which increased by 16.4% (27,493 transactions). Sales of social housing properties grew by 22.8% (3,085).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet) 

Translation: Carmel Drake