ARCHIVED - Spanish property sales figures down significantly again in September

Figures fell in all but 2 of the 17 of the regions of Spain, Murcia was one of the exceptions

This Tuesday saw the publication by the government’s central statistics unit of the residential property sales data for the month of September 2019, showing that the number of transactions was 12 per cent lower than in the same month last year at 37,995.

This follows an even sharper decrease of 21 per cent in August and appears to confirm that activity in the market has hit a ceiling and is suffering a downturn. Various factors may be at play here, including the continuing political uncertainty in Spain (which looks set to continue following Sunday’s general election), the indications that unemployment figures have bottomed out and could start to rise and others including the slowdown of general economic growth, but whatever the causes the government figures for the last two months leave little room for doubt.

As ever, though, there is a good deal of disparity among the results reported in Spain’s 17 regions. The sharpest year-on-year decreases in September were those of over 20 per cent in the Canaries and the northern regions of Asturias, La Rioja, Navarra and Castilla y León, while at the other end of the scale were slight increases of 3.7 per cent in Aragón and 3.1 per cent in the Region of Murcia.

As is almost always the case, the region with most sales per 100,000 inhabitants of property-buying age during July was the Comunidad Valenciana, with a figure of 151, while second on the list in September was the Region of Murcia with 135.

As a result of the August and September decreases the overall total of sales registered in the first 9 months of 2019 is now 3.2 per cent lower than at the same point last year at just under 385,000, while the running 12-monthly total is 0.9 per cent lower than a year ago at a little over 504,000. Taking an even longer view, though, the extent to which the real estate sector in Spain has recovered is such that the level of sales activity is 71.9 per cent higher than when the market bottomed out in February 2014.

It is also worth noting, in the context of reports of increased demand for new housing in Spain and an upturn in residential construction activity, that the proportion of sales accounted for by new properties during August was down to 16.9 per cent, with 6,426 transactions reported.

To view a wide range of properties for sale across Spain consult the Spanish property page.

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