Tag: Home sales

Moroccans and Romanians Among the Biggest Foreign Buyers of Homes in Spain

20 August 2019

The profile of foreign home buyers in Spain is changing as traditional European countries are now accounting for a diminishing percentage, according to a report by the Spanish College of Registrars.

Between January and March, foreign buyers acquired more than 16,000 homes in Spain, approximately 12% of all operations. The British accounted for 13.79% of the total, down from a high of from 37% in 2008. The French also fell from 10% in 2014 to 7.5% in the first quarter of this year. Germans fell to 6.89%, and the Italians dropped to 4.91% from 5.77% in 2017.

Moroccans are now the fourth most active buyers (6.14%), while Romanians are the fifth (6.12%), followed by the Belgians (5.41%), Italians (4.91%) and the Chinese (4.49%).

Original Story: Idealista – Ana P. Alarcos

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

International Buyers Now Account for Just 20% of Luxury Home Sales in Barcelona

20 August 2019

Luxury homes in Barcelona are attracting fewer foreign buyers than just a few years ago. At that time, they accounted for 50% of all transactions, while now that has fallen to one in five.

Several factors have combined to lead to the decline. According to Barnes, a real estate agency, Spanish buyers have become more prevalent, while foreign buyers have increasingly turned their attention to other places like the Balearic Islands, Greece, and Portugal. Geopolitical factors such as the independence movement in Catalonia have also taken a toll.

Original Story: Idealista

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Home Sales Fall by 9% in June

 8 August 2019

The sale of homes in Spain fell by 9% y-o-y in June, as the INE registered a total of 40,961 transactions. The fall was the steepest since February 2014.

New home sales fell by 7.8%, year-on-year, to 7,205 transactions (17.6% of the total), while existing home sales dropped by 9.2% to 33,756 transactions (82.4% of the total). Month-on-month, housing sales fell by 13.9%, according to Spain’s statistical agency, the INE.

Some regions still saw significant growth, such as Castilla-La Mancha (+9.2%), Murcia (+7.2%) and Galicia (+4.5%), while steep falls were seen in the Canary Islands (-22.5%), the Balearic Islands (-17.4%) and Aragon (-13.9%).

Market watchers point to a period of adaptation after the entry into force of the mortgage law, a less benign international economic environment and a generalised slowdown as the pace of growth moderates due to a maturing market.

Original Story: Expansión – M. G. Mayo

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

The Sale Of Homes Soars By 11.1% In 2015 On The Second-Hand Market

10 February 2016 – El Economista (Europa Press)

Second-hand home transactions increase by 37.2% in the year, reaching their highest level since 2007.

Home sales increased by 11.1% in 2015 with respect to the previous year, up to a total of 354,132 transactions, its highest level since 2011, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported last Wednesday.

The second-hand market has been the driving force behind this annual growth, the second one produced after the home sales increase by 2% in 2014.

In the period of crisis, the worst year for housing transactions were 2009 and 2008, in which these transactions plummeted by 25.1% and 28.8%, respectively. In 2012 and 2011, double-digit declines were still taking place (-11.5% and -18.1%), while in 2013 the decline slowed to 1.9% due to the end of tax benefits for housing purchase.

Home sales hit the accelerator in 2015 in a context of low prices, although experts believe that the correction reached its lowest level last year and will moderately rise.

The recovery in home sales in 2015 was due to the growth experienced in second-hand home transactions, which rocketed by 37.2%, reaching 276,300 transactions, the highest figure since 2007. By contrast, transactions on new homes fell 33.7% last year, reaching just 77,865, the lowest volume of the series.

89.8% of homes transferred by merchanting last year were non-subsidized and 10.2% were subsidized. In total, the sale of non-subsidized homes increased by 11.1% in 2015, while subsidized home transactions increased by 10.8% reaching 36,077 transactions, after several years of decline.

Andalucía, ahead of housing sales

In 2015, the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants took place in Valencia (1,322) and the Balearic Islands (1,177).

Andalusia was the region performing the highest number of transactions during last year reaching 70,739, followed by Catalonia (54,571), Region of Valencia (51,788) and Madrid (50,373).

The regions that performed a lower number of sales were La Rioja (2,561), Castilla y León (4,298 transactions) and Navarra (4,313).

In relative values, home sales rose in all regions in 2015, except for Navarra, where they decreased by 1.7%. The regions where these transactions increased the most were the Basque Country (+ 17.2%) and Aragón (+ 16.6%).

Total properties transferred in 2015 increase by 4.6%

Adding the urban and rural properties (homes and other urban nature properties), the properties transferred in 2015 reached 1,634,670, an increase of 4.6% over the previous year, thus returning to positive figures after having fallen by 4.5% in 2014.

Properties transferred by merchanting increased by 8.1% with respect to 2014, while donations increased by 2%, exchange transactions fell by 9.2%, and those transmitted by inheritance advanced by 6.6%.

According to the INE, the number of rural property sales increased by 6.5% in 2015, reaching a total of 126,470 transactions, thus adding its fifth consecutive year of increase, while urban property sales increased by 8.4%, reaching 627,128 transactions.

In the last month of 2015, home sales increased by 6.8% with reference to December 2014, reaching 27,625 transactions and lowering by nearly seven points the 13.7% year-on-year increase registered in November. With the rise in December, home sales accumulates 16 consecutive months of year-on-year increases.

In month-on-month rates (December 2015 compared to November of the same year), home sales fell by 3.9%, compared with increases of 1.6% and 2.4% recorded in December 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Original story: El Economista (Europa Press)

Translation: Aura Ree