23 Sep
2017

Madrid's city street showcases tall buildings and a prominent clock tower; one of the top 3 European cities to invest in.

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Last Updated on 18/07/2023 by STEPHANE

Automatic translation from Google translate:

During the second quarter, house prices in Spain went up 0.16% and 4.4% year-on-year.

The College of Registrars, the office of notary in Spain, has released the last statistics of the Spanish real estate market up to June 2017 in its quarterly report:

The prices are rising 4.4% on a year-on-year basis
Transactions are increasing by 5%
Foreigners remain active (highest level of activity since 2008)
British, Germans and Frenchs are the biggest buyers.
The Canary Islands are the most sought-after regions by foreigners vs locals.
Mortgage conditions remain favourable at 2.27%

During the second quarter, house prices in Spain went up 0.16% and 4.41% year-on-year, it is the tenth quarter in a row with price increases! Prices are still 24% under the levels of 2007 but rebounded by 15% from 2014 lows.

Transactions up 5%

The number of properties sold was just under 120.000, 5% more than on the first quarter. 20.000 properties are new-build.
Real estate transactions in Spain are at the highest level since 2008

Spaniards and Foreigners are very active, both are buying the most since 2008, check this chart:

Yearly data. Source: Ministerio de Fomento

The regions having strong growth rates in terms of sales are the Canary and Balearic Islands (above 17% growth).

Which regions are the most sought-after?

The regions with the biggest number of transactions remain the same:

Andalusia, 22.8k
Catalonia, 20.1k
The Community of Madrid, 18.1k
and the community of Valencia. 17.4k

The provinces with the highest number of housing sales are:

Madrid, 63,037,
Barcelona, 51,010,
Alicante, 32,068,
Málaga, 28,271,
Valencia, 23,644,
Baleares, 15,158,
Seville, 13,423,
Murcia, 12,274,
Las Palmas, 10,962,
and Tenerife, 10,602.

The provinces with the highest year-on-year increases in housing sales are:

Tarragona, 26.6%,
Almería, 25.7%,
Barcelona, 21.3%,
Baleares, 21.1%,
and Tenerife, 19.7%.

Foreigners remain active: British, French, and German made the top 3!

Foreigners remain very active with 13% of transactions, i.e. 15.600 properties were bought by foreigners.

British remain the biggest buyers with a 14.90% of the properties bought by foreigners,
French with 8.5%,
Germans with 7.8%,
Belgians with 6.4%,
Italians with 6.2%,
Swedes with 6.2%,
Romanians with 4.3%,
Chinese with 4.1%,
Russian 2.7%,
Dutch 2.5%,
Norwegian 2.2%

Where do foreigners buy?

Here are the top 4 regions (% bought by foreigners):

Canary Islands, 32,2%
Balearic Islands, 28.4%
Valencian Community 25.5%
Region of Murcia 19.2%

Of course, foreigners are buying mainly (more than 90%) in the Mediterranean regions

and the top provinces (% bought by foreigners) :

Tenerife (39.72%),
Girona (29.39%),
Malaga (29.02%),
Baleares (28.37%),
Las Palmas (24.79%),
Murcia (19.18%),
Tarragona (15.21%),
Almeria (14.74%)
and Castellon (14.43%).

Remember our nice infographic with the data of last year:

Analysis of the financial conditions and the mortgage activity

Interest rates were at 2.27% at historical lows!
On average, mortgage borrowing was of 1.200€/m² vs 1.188€/m² in Q1,
- with the highest in Madrid with 1.754€/m²
- and the lowest in Extremadura 656€/m²
On average the mortgage debt per household is €115.769
- with the highest in Madrid (€ 184,223)
- and the lowest in the Canary Islands (€ 76,793)
5% of mortgages had a variable rate (Euribor mainly) as reference
5% of mortgages had a fixed rate as reference
The average length of a mortgage loan was 23 years and 4 months.
The average monthly mortgage charge is €536 (for a is €115.769 mortgage)
Which is 28% of a monthly wage
There were 6.744 foreclosures in Q2.
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