New Home sales increased 6.4% in August
In August, the number of home sales in Spain fell by 12.1% when compared to August 2019. Considering what the country has been through in recent months this is not a big fall and is far smaller than many expected. This also shows that the property market is resilient and is recovering well from the national lockdown.
Total property sales in August reached 68,220, an annual decrease of just 7.8%. 85.1% of the sales registered in August correspond to urban properties and 14.9% to rustic properties. In the case of urban property sales, 54.1% were sales of homes (31,394).
The number of purchases of rustic properties increased 5.0% in the annual rate in August, while that of urban properties decreased 9.7%, according to data from the INE.
21.6% of the homes sold in Spain in August were new-build properties and 78.4% were second-hand properties. The number of sales of new homes increased by 6.4% compared to August 2019, while that of used homes decreased by 16.1%. This is good news for developers who had seen a drop in sales of new property before the lockdown.
Results by Autonomous Communities
In August, the total number of sold properties registered in the property registers per 100,000 inhabitants reached its highest values in Castilla y León (597), La Rioja (596) and Aragón (502).
Extremadura (15.7%), Asturias (7.8%) and Castilla y León (6.9%) registered the highest positive annual variation rates.
On the other hand, Murcia (–23.7%), Catalonia (–22.8%) and La Rioja (–17.8%) presented the biggest negative interannual variations.
In terms of registered home sales, the communities with the highest number of sales per 100,000 inhabitants are Cantabria, Valencia and La Rioja (all with 107).
The communities that presented the highest annual increases in the number of home sales in August were Extremadura (49.2%), La Rioja (20.5%) and Aragón (17.9%).
Valencia (–23.5%), Catalonia (–23.0%) and Madrid (–18.3%) registered the greatest decreases.
Home sales in Andalucia reached 6,228 in August. This decrease is slightly higher than the national average at 13%, year-on-year.
Mortgages
The number of new mortgage loans taken in August was 22,536, representing an increase of 2.9% year-on-year. The average amount of these loans was €147,131, thus reflecting a fall of 13.1% year-on-year, according to the General Council of Notaries.
New mortgages taken for the acquisition of a property increased by 5.2% year-on-year in August (18,572 loans). Among these, there was an increase in loans for the acquisition of a home (6.5%) and a decrease in those for the acquisition of other properties (-12.5%).
The average amount of the new loans reached €128,739 (-9.4% year-on-year). In the case of home loans, the average capital borrowed was €128,512, showing a decrease of 3.4% year-on-year. For all other property types the average loan reached €132,501 (-51.4% year-on-year).
Loans for construction showed a 3.4% year-on-year increase in August, reaching 460 operations. The average amount of those loans was €492,611, showing year-on-year growth of 9.4%. The average amount of loans for the construction of a house increased by 26.5% to €440,734 (399 operations).
The percentage of home purchases financed by a mortgage loan stood at 52.9%. In this type of purchase with financing, the amount of the loan was on average 74.8% of the property value.
