Sales of new property bounced back in April
In April, there was 50,172 property sales, an annual increase of 1.06%, according to data from the General Council of Notaries.
The increase was due exclusively to the considerable increase in the sale of new properties (+18.6% year-on-year), while there was a drop in sales of second-hand properties (-1.6%). The sale of single-family homes increased by 7.4%, while there was a fall of 0.6% in the sale of flats.
In terms of average price, a square metre of housing purchased in April reached €1,407, reflecting a drop of 1.7% year-on-year. This was due to a fall in price of both flats (-0.6%) and also single-family homes (-2.1%).
The average cost per square metre of second-hand housing in April was €1,569 (-1.2% year-on-year), while the average price of new property reached €2,092 (+1.7% year-on-year).
Mortgages
There was an annual increase of 3.7% in the number of new mortgage loans taken in April, reaching 33,659 new loans. The average amount of those new loans reached €171,521, reflecting an annual increase of 4.1%.
Looking only at mortgages taken for the purchase of real estate, there was an increase of 4.6% with 25,878 new loans. This was due, on the one hand, to the increase in loans taken for the acquisition of a home (5.1%) and, on the other hand, the decrease in the number of loans taken for the purchase of other types of property (-2.3%). The average amount of the loans taken for the purchase of a home reached €135,084, reflecting an annual decrease of 1.1%. For other types of property, the average amount of capital borrowed reached €180,442, an annual fall of 12.4%.
Loans taken in April for the construction of a property increased 7.2%, up to 649 operations. The average amount of those loans was €481,387, an increase of 14.3%. On the other hand, the average amount of loans taken for the construction of housing increased by 24.7% to reach €341,330 (508 loans).
Finally, the percentage of home purchases which were financed by a mortgage loan in April stood at 48.3%. Furthermore, in this type of transaction, the average loan-to-value was 74.7%.
