INE: House Sales Rose By 13.7% YoY In Nov 15

13 January 2016 – Expansión

28,733 homes were sold in November 2015, which represented a 13.7% increase compared with the previous year. Of those, 23,129 were second-hand properties, which as such represented 80.5% of all sales. Therefore, it is the second hand market that is driving the real estate market with an annual growth rate of 30.5% (around 5,500 more second-hand homes per month) given that 17,725 second-hand homes were sold in November 2014. The volume of these operations has been growing for 21 consecutive months now and sales figures of this magnitude have not been recorded since 2008.

Meanwhile, the sale of new homes, which account for 19.5% of all operations, decreased by 25.7% in November 2015, with 5,604 sales recorded, compared with 7,453 sales one year before. This represents, together with October, the lowest figure since the statistical series began (in 2007).

All of this means that the stock of half a million homes, which were leftover on plots across the country and in the hands of the banks following the burst of the bubble, are continuing to decrease, since statistically properties that were constructed more than a year ago are actually classified as second-hand homes. The data also shows that there are hardly any new builds, i.e. any homes that have been constructed within the last year, given the oversupply that still exists.

According to the data provided by INE, which is compiled on the basis of the operations recorded in property registries resulting from public deeds, in the 11 months to November 2015, 326,507 operations were recorded, up by 11.4% compared with the previous year. In other words, around 33,500 more homes were sold during the same period. Based on these figures, around 360,000 units will be sold during the year as a whole, equivalent to the full year figure in 2011 and almost half of the volume recorded in 2007.

Most of the homes sold during the month were unsubsidised (90.4%). The remainder were social housing properties. The most operations per 100,000 inhabitants were carried out in the Community of Valencia (111) and the Balearic Islands (105). But, in absolute terms, Andalucía continued to lead the ranking since 5,752 sales were recorded in that autonomous region, followed by Cataluña (4,523), the Community of Valencia (4,346) and Madrid (3,692).

Another interesting fact is that besides the sale of these 28,733 homes in November 2015, a further 30,000 real estate property transfers were made during the month. More than half (16,000) were classified as “other”, in other words, they corresponded to: transfers without ownership rights, “daciones en pago”, mortgage foreclosures and court awards. In addition, almost 13,000 entries were recorded due to inheritance (1,200 more than a year ago). The remainder related to swaps (1,120) and donations (only 93, half the number recorded one year ago).

Original story: Expansión (by Francisco Nuñez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: House Sales Increased By 2.1% In March

11 May 2015 – Europa Press

House sales increased by 1.4% in Castilla-La Mancha in March with respect to the same month in 2014, to a total of 1,150 transactions, according to a report published by the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística or INE) on Friday. It stated that the number of house sales per 100,000 inhabitants was 71 during the month in that autonomous community.

In absolute terms, Andalucía continued to lead the ranking in terms of the volume of house sales during the third month of the year, with 5,331 transactions, followed by Cataluña (4,334), Madrid (4,011) and Valencia (3,837).

In relative terms, the regions where the inter-annual rates of house sales increased the most was in Asturias (+39%), Galicia (+18.3%) and Castilla y León (+13.6%), whilst the highest decreases were recorded in the Balearic Islands (-21%), La Rioja (-20%) and Extremadura (-18.8%).

During the same month, the highest number of house sales per 100,000 inhabitants were in Valencia, with 98 and the Balearic Islands, with 87.

Spain as a whole

Nationally, house sales increased by 2.1% during March with respect to the same month in 2014, with 27,280 transactions. The inter-annual increase in March was much more moderate than in February, when house sales increased by more than 15%.

Even so, the indicator succeeded in recording its seventh consecutive inter-annual increase in March, due exclusively to a 32.8% increase in the sale of second-hand homes (20,683 transactions), given that the sale of new homes decreased by 40.9% with respect to March 2014 (6,597 transactions).

The data published by INE corresponds to sales registered in the property records based on public deeds signed in the months preceding the reference month.

During the first quarter of the year, the sale of homes rose by 9%, with a decrease of 35.6% in transactions involving new homes and an increase of 44.6% for second-hand homes.

If we look at the monthly data only (March versus February), the sale of homes decreased by 8.2%, compared with the monthly increase of 3.9% recorded a year earlier.

Most of the homes bought and sold during the third month of the year, specifically 89.7%, were unsubsidised homes. The sale of this type of home increased by 1.4% on an inter-annual basis, to 24,473 transactions, as the number of sales of subsidised homes amounted to 2,807, with an increase of 8% with respect to March 2014.

Total property sold increases by 3.8%

If we add together rural and urban properties (homes and other properties of an urban nature), the total number of property transfers amounted to 143,761 in March, up 3.8% from the same month in 2014.

In terms of sales, 4.2% more properties were transferred than a year earlier, whilst transfers from donations rose by 0.4%. The volume of ‘exchange transactions’ (operaciones por permuta) decreased by 2.6%, whilst the number of properties transferred by inheritance increased by 11% on an inter-annual basis.

According to INE’s data, the number of rural house sales increased by 10.1% in March in inter-annual terms, whilst the number of urban properties sales (which includes homes) increased by 2.9%.

In March, the total number of transferred properties registered in the property records for every 100,000 inhabitants was highest in La Rioja (678), Castilla y León (671) and Castilla-La Mancha (640).

The regions that recorded the highest increases in these transactions were Navarra (+9.9%) and Castilla-La Mancha (+9.7%), whilst the most marked decreases were recorded in Extremadura (-9.4%) and Murcia (-4.4%).

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake