Date Published: 05/02/2020
ARCHIVED - Property sales fell everywhere in Spain except Murcia in the third quarter of 2019
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Notaries report the continuation of the recovery in the Costa Cálida
Spain’s notaries recently published their quarterly report regarding activity in the property market during the third quarter of last year, and it was encouraging to see the Region of Murcia making the headlines for positive reasons as sales figures continued to rise.
The picture in the country as a whole, according to the notaries’ data, is one of a decline in activity, with the number of transactions registered being 6.3 per cent lower than in the equivalent period of 2018 at 124,042. The most pronounced decreases were those reported in the northern regions of Navarra (-26.5 per cent) and Asturias (-13.1 per cent), and the slowdown in the market was almost universal, perhaps influenced by the political uncertainty during a period in which it became necessary for another general election to be held as attempts to form a government failed.
But Murcia was the only one of Spain’s 17 regions to defy the general downward trend, with a 3.4 per cent year-on-year increase taking sales up to 4,241. The third quarter of the year is almost always the slowest in terms of property sales due to notaries and many others taking their annual holidays, and this was again the case in Murcia, but nonetheless this shows that while a peak has been reached in most of the country the attractive prices in the Costa Cálida are still proving sufficient to stimulate sales even after an annual increase of 17 per cent in 2018.
At the same time the average price per square metre also increased in Murcia, albeit by only 1.9 per cent, slightly lower than the national appreciation rate of 3.2 per cent.
It is also interesting to note that Murcia registered the sharpest increase in the number of mortgage loans taken out to finance housing purchases. In one way that is logical, of course – more sales generally equates to more loans – but a rise of 16.1 per cent, the most significant in the country, indicates firstly that those buying in the Costa Cálida are willing to do so without selling another home in order to finance the transaction, and secondly that banks continue to be happy to lend against attractive market prices.
The average loan capital for mortgages in Murcia is reported as being 86,294 euros, just 0.9 per cent higher than a year previously.
It must be remembered, of course, that these data are slightly out of date: the third quarter of 2019 ended over four months ago. But on the other hand, while Murcia was one of the regions where the bounce-back effect took longest to begin after the long slump in the market which began in 2007 and 2008, it seems that at least as recently as late last year that upward trend was being maintained, and with housing in the Costa Cálida more affordable than in almost any other part of Spain there is a good chance that this will remain the case in 2020.
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