Spanish Home Sales surge in April & May 2018
In April this year the number of homes sales recorded by the Spanish Land Registry surged by 31%, compared to the same month in 2017, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Property portal Idealista.com published its own statistics on price increases, which show an increase of prices by nearly 0.8% for the month of May, compared to May 2017, thanks to booming demand. Year-on-year, resale house prices rose by 7.8%, according to the portal's own data. International property experts Lucas Fox estimated that in the first two months of 2018 alone some 90,000 Spanish homes were sold.
According to INE, 37,930 home sales were registered with the Land Registry in April of this year. The total figure was 42,041, including VPO or subsidised homes. Homes sales are registered with the Land Registry in Spain between one and three months following the sale of a Spanish property, so there's always a certain amount of inaccuracy about the actual monthly figures. The Association of Spanish Notaries publish their own records, which are more accurate with regard to timing. The Association's figures for April showed a rise of 11.6% to 48,415, which includes VPO properties.
The market is still led by resale homes, although new Spanish home sales are gradually catching up. INE's figures for April 2018 show that new homes sales rose 27% (to 7,105), and second-hand home sales increased by 31% (to 34,905) this year. Over the past 12 months, new home sales have increased every month, bringing the long slump in this sector to an end, as an over-supply of housing stock is being reduced due to rising demand.
According to Idealista.com's own data, resale house prices rose by 0.8% in May 2018, bringing the price per square metre to 1,645 euros (or 154 euro per square foot).
Malaga region's home sales in April, according to the Land Registry's figures, rose by an amazing 62%. This includes sales registered for the Costa del Sol. According to Idealista.com's findings, Madrid is still the most expensive autonomous community - here the average cost of buying a second-hand home stood at 2,804 per square metre in May 2018 (260 euros per square foot). The Balearic Islands came in second place with an average house price per square metre of 2,617 or 243 euros per square foot. This was due to high demand for property in Mallorca. At the lower end were the communities of Extremadura with 926 euros per square metre (86 euro per square foot) and Murcia, where the square metre of a resale home cost 1,027 euros or 95 euros per square foot.
The portal's own data also revealed that house prices in Madrid province rose by 2.1%, one of the highest increases recorded after Las Palmas (2.5%) and Lugo (2.2%), whereas home owners in Zamora had to contend with a 1.9% average reduction on resale prices. Homes in Ja én old on average for 1.1% less in May 2018 and in Guadalajara province home prices dropped by 1%.
Barcelona province was the second most expensive area in terms of average price per square metre after Madrid province. Property in Barcelona province saw an increase per square metre soar to 2,733 euros (or 254 euros per square foot). Toledo turned out to be the cheapest province. Here the average house price was 793 euro per square metre or 74 euro per square foot. Idealista.com's figures were based on 402,279 property listings for the month of May 2018.
If you were thinking of buying an investment property in Spain, a retirement villa or holiday home at the Costa del Sol, don't delay your decision for too long - prices are rising fast due to surging demand, as figures for April and May prove. Spain's house price index published by Tinsa, which is one of the country's biggest appraisal companies, also showed that house prices rose considerably, particularly in Barcelona and Madrid, where prices went up by 8.7% in April 2018, compared to the previous year. Tinsa also showed that house prices for the Balearic Islands, including Mallorca, went up by 5.6%.
