Jávea Property Sales

In a report published this week by the General Council of Notaries, their latest data indicates good news for the Spanish residential market, with home sales rising in the first quarter of the year by 18.6% year-on-year, to a total of 102,297 transactions, and double-digit growth being recorded in almost all regions, except for Navarre and Aragón.

The greatest year-on-year increases were registered in Catalonia (24.4%) and Asturias (29.5%), with total home sales recorded of 16,097 and 1,729 homes, respectively.

In addition, the prices per square metre of the homes sold increased by 4.0% at a national level in the first quarter of the year, reaching an average price per square metre of 1,297 euros. This figure was greatly exceeded in the Basque Country (2,190 euros), the Balearic Islands (2,122 euros) and Madrid (1,874 euros).

Four regions registered declines in the average price per square metre, the greatest being those recorded in Aragón (-5.8%), Castilla y León (-3.3%) and Navarra (-3.3%), while the regions which registered year-on-year growth around the national average were Madrid (5.0%) and Extremadura (3.4%). The Notaries’ report also highlighted that, although the largest year-on-year increases in the average price per square metre were recorded in La Rioja (15.4%) and Castilla-La Mancha (14.6%), the recovery in prices is most visible in the coastal regions and the islands – with the Balearic and Canary Islands recording increases of 12.0% and 7.2%, respectively.

Sales of apartments at the national level show a very similar level of growth to home sales in general (18.2%). Moreover, apart from the regions of Navarre and Aragón registering declines in the number of apartments sold, of -20.1% and -3.3%, respectively, and Galicia recording growth of only 7.5%, all of Spain’s other regions achieved double-digit year-on-year increases, with the greatest being those registered in Asturias (24.1%), the Balearic Islands (23.4%) and Catalonia (23.2%).

At the national level, the average price per square metre of the apartments sold slightly exceeds the average price of housing in general, standing at 1,418 euros. Most of the regions registered year-on-year increases in the average price per square metre of between 2% and 4%. However, the report highlighted the double-digit increases of La Rioja (13.7%), and the Balearic Islands (17.0%), while declines in the average prices were registered in the regions of Castilla y León (-5.4%), Aragón (-5.3%), Cantabria (-0.6%) and Castilla-La Mancha (-0.4%).

The Notaries’ report also revealed that sales of new apartments registered a decline of 7.7% at the national level, while sales of second hand apartments recorded growth of 22.3% in the first quarter of 2016, and although sales of second hand apartments increased significantly compared to sales of new apartments, the average price per square metre rose similarly in both cases, with the average price of new apartments standing slightly higher than the second hand apartments, at 1,671 euros, compared to 1,414 euros.

The constitution of new mortgages increased in all regions except for Aragón, where they fell by -2.5%. The average amount loaned increased by 10.1% at a national level, due to increases far higher than the national average being registered in the regions of Navarre (52.3%) and Castilla-La Mancha (22.2%) while, in contrast, in Extremadura the number of new mortgages constituted dropped by -24.7%.