How strong is the activity on the real estate market in Spain?

The “Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas”, INE, has just released the Transactions statistics for the month of December 2018 and the full year.

• 33.831 properties were sold in December +3.8% vs last year
• 90% are transactions on non protected properties while 10% are on protected properties
• 27.659 properties are second-hand sales, i.e. 82% of the transactions, a growth of 6.5% vs last year
• 6.172 are new build properties, i.e. 18% of the transactions, a growth of 93.2% vs last year

Here is the price and transaction evolution with quarterly data over the last 20 years:

What are the most active regions in terms of transactions?

1. Andalusia with 6.741 transactions, +7.1% vs last year
2. Catalunia with 5.184 transactions, +5.9% vs last year
3. The Valencian community with 5.140 transactions, + 2.9% vs last year
4. The Madrid Community with 4.854 transactions, +1.6% vs last year

Those 4 regions are the same where foreigners are the most active:

Where do we see the strongest growth in December vs last year?

1. The Region of Murcia with a growth of 22.6% and 1.102 transactions
2. Cantabria with a growth of 19%, and 500 transactions
3. Extremadura with a growth of 18.4% and 560 transactions
4. La Rioja with a growth of 18.6% and 223 transactions

Where do we see the biggest activity vs the living population in the region?

1. The Valencian community with 131 transactions for 100.000 inhabitants
2. The Balearic Islands with close to 109 transactions per 100.000 inhabitants
3. Cantabria has 108 transactions per 100.000 inhabitants

Where do we see the slowest activity vs the living population in the region?

Asturies, Aragon, Canary Islands, Castilla and Leon, Castilla La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, The Basque country and Galicia are the least active regions with transactions between 95 to 63 per 100.000 inhabitants.

If you want to check further the activity on the top 20 property markets in Spain: evolution of prices and transactions up to June 2018, have a look at our full report:

What was the situation on the Spanish property market in August 2018?

• 44.637 properties were sold in August +7.4% vs last year
• 90% are transactions on non protected properties while 10% are on protected properties
• 36.462 properties are second-hand sales, i.e. 82% of the transactions, a growth of 6.9% vs last year
• 8.175 are newbuild properties, i.e. 18% of the transactions, a growth of 9.6% vs last year

Most active regions in terms of transactions?

1. Andalusia with 9.141 transactions
2. Catalunia with 6.883 transactions
3. The Valencian community with 6.591 transactions
4. The Madrid Community with 6.212 transactions

Strongest growth vs last year?

1. The Navarre with a growth of 37.3% and 670 transactions
2. The Region of Murcia with a growth of 23.4% and 1.423 transactions
3. The Asturias with a growth of 23.4% and 817 transactions
4. The Basque country with a growth of 18.7% and 1.855 transactions

Biggest activity vs the living population in the region?

1. The Valencian community with 168 transactions for 100.000 inhabitants
2. Andalusia with 139 transactions per 100.000 inhabitants
3. The Navarre, Cantabria, The Balearic Islands have all close to 130 transactions per 100.000 inhabitants
4. Murcia, The Canary Islands and Madrid have all close to 122 transactions per 100.000 inhabitants

What is the evolution over the full year 2018?

Strong growth of properties sold in Spain in 2018: +10.1%

The growth was strong in 2018: +10.1% to 515.051 units. Actually, it’s not the first time: +15,4% in 2017, +14% in 2016 and +11.5% in 2015. To compare this number with the units sold in 2014, we had 318.8 properties sold in 2014.

Please remember, you have 26m properties in Spain and before the crisis, yearly transactions were bigger than 800.000 units/year.

New build and existing properties are both strong in 2018:

New build properties: 92.520 sold in 2018, +11.1% vs last year. (+10.8% in 2017, -2.4% in 2016, -34.5% in 2015)

Existing properties: 422.531 sold in 2018, +9.9% vs last year. (+16.4% in 2017, 18.5% in 2016, 38.4% in 2015)

Check the evolution over the last 4 years

Which regions are growing faster than the country average?

Here are the Spanish regions growing at the fastest pace in 2018:

Which are the Spanish regions with the most transactions per 100.000 properties?

Which are the Spanish regions with the least transactions per 100.000 properties?

Check the Spanish report from the INE.

Looking for a mortgage or a local expert in Alicante, Malaga, Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona,…? Ask us directly!

Stéphane

Senior analyst and strategist at HTBIS

Check the full HTBIS team here

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The long-term search for an equilibrium on the Spanish rental market

We will not refer to tourist rentals or seasonal rentals -which will also be the subject of an article later- but we will talk in this paper only about “classic” rentals that constitute the homes of families. When we analyze the situation: it is so difficult to find a balanced solution that pleases all the players.

We have spent decades with a Law of Urban Leases that protected the tenants in such a way, that there were cases in which a 300m2 apartment on the Diagonal was enjoyed for 600 “constant” Pesetas ( about € 4 today) until the death of the tenant and beyond… if there were relatives living with the deceased. I remember desperate owners, forced to change the elevator, and whose rental income did not even cover maintenance.

Then came the ‘Decree Boyer’ in 1985, and thereafter the new law in 1994, and market rents of flats became a sort of ‘Far West’, for which the new tenants had to face free prices, meagre stays and the consequent pressures before the time of renewal.
It is clear that this situation, in years of economic boom, decisively favoured the real estate market, with mortgage loans that today constitute a headache we are experiencing.

But here we are: we do not know how to find the middle term of things, letting the law of the pendulum act like an elephant in a china shop.

Other solutions in foreign countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Those of us who have seen a little of what goes on outside, find with astonishment that, for example, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, it is only a minor part of the population that owns its housing: the wealthiest, owning something exclusive properties. Most of the population lives in flats or terraced houses whose owners are investment funds or pension funds.

If the housing ceases to be a speculative good (it seems that this is not going to be the case since there is already talk of another bubble) there would be security for the stability of the housing market. Which would avoid the distortions of unpayable mortgages we have been living in recent years.
Lately, we have seen significant increases in rents, where Barcelona and Madrid have marked record highs, so we find that former owners with unpayable mortgages are in a rental market with unpayable leases, however, at the same time, we have about 3.5 million empty homes.

A new system in Catalonia?

The Catalan government tried to impose a tax on vacant dwellings, which has been suspended by the Constitutional Court. They are now trying, together with the Barcelona City Council, to reduce abusive rents through tax credits and aid to landlords who fix more modest prices. Another measure welcomed by the Catalan government is a new price index that would be applied gradually and for which, in June 2017, 27 municipalities had been taken into account, representing almost 60% of the population of Catalonia.

It is a pioneering system in Spain that is inspired by the one that has ruled Berlin for years. According to the Generalitat itself, it is an indicator of public consultation with an informative nature that allows us to know an estimate of the average price per square meter of rent for a house located in an area and with characteristics defined by the person making the query. You can find more at the following link.

The important thing is that the rates are considered fair by both the tenants and the owners, a difficult task, as each one looks at the proposed house with its own glasses. And, unlike Germany and Austria, in which the majority of rental housing is from large specialised corporations, in Spain 97% of rental housing is in private hands, according to data from Solvia, which implies more diversity of opinions. Recently I wrote about the big projects planned by large corporations that may be interested in entering this dynamic, which would settle that percentage a bit, find the earlier paper here: The new “Phoenix”: the construction of homes reborns with force in Spain.

In our opinion, a stabilisation of the housing market would provide advantages for homeowners concerning the regularity of the leases’ payments and possibly a more accessible rental market for the tenants.
If this stabilisation can sometimes mean some sacrifice concerning income, this may be offset in the long run by this regularity, as there is nothing worse than a slope housing rented for months, and especially it should be complemented by tax credits and aid.
This system could even come to reduce the need to invest in social housing, so the paradox that aid might end bonuses and might mean savings for the Spanish state.

This article is written by one of our independent partners in Spain, Juan, who is one of our Legal partners in Catalonia. Check his profile.

Do you want to get in touch with him? Ask us for an introduction and benefit from the power of our network.

Looking for another real estate lawyer in another Spanish region?

Juan

Check the full HTBIS team here
Automatic translation from Google translate:

Property sold in Spain rose by 9.2% in December to 32.211 units.

The INE, the “Instituto nacional de Estadistica”, the Statistic office in Spain has released the last numbers for property transactions in December.

In December, the number of dwellings sold was 32.211 units:

Urban vs Rustic properties (including land)

• Urban properties 54.510 +6% vs last year
• Rustic properties 9.625 -5.5% vs last year

Newbuild vs existing

17.8% of properties sold in December are new and 82.2% are existing properties. If we compare that to December 2016, the growth in transactions for newbuild is 11% and is 8.8% for existing properties.

Protected vs not protected

• Protected housing sold were 10.3% vs 89.7% for not protected.
• That is a growth of 16.5% for protected and 8.4% for free housing.

Top 3 Autonomous Communities

• Andalusia, 6.287, +10.7%
• Valencian Community, 4.980, +25.5%
• Catalonia, 4.749, -5.7%
• Community of Madrid, 4.721, +10.2%

Biggest growth

• Castilla la Mancha +44.4% (1.343)
• Aragon +32.5% (979)
• Principalty of Asturias +31% (600)
• Valencian Community +25.5% (4.980)

Negative growth

• La Rioja, -17.5%, (188)
• Balears, -8.3% (1083)
• Catalonia, -5.7% (4.749)
• Basque Country, -5.4% (1.128)

Review of the property transactions in Spain for the year 2017

1.787.776 Transactions in 2017 vs 1.687.700 in 2016

• 933.104 properties sold in 2017 or a growth of 12.7% (vs a growth of 9.5% in 2016, 8.5% in 2015 and 1.6% in 2014)
• 464.423 dwellings sold in 2017 or a growth of 14.6% ( vs a growth of 14% in 2016, 11.5% in 2015 and 2% in 2014)
• 418.915 were free housing and 45.508 were protected
• 381.163 are existing housing while 83.260 are newbuild properties which

Top 4 Autonomous Communities in terms of the number of transactions for 2017

• Andalucia with 89.337 dwellings, +12.6%
• Catalonia with 76.369 dwellings, +13.6%
• Community of Madrid with 70.203 dwellings, +18.9%
• Valencian Community with 68.512 dwellings, +18.1%

Have a look at our infographic on where the foreigners are buying real estate in Spain, the top regions are the same apart from Madrid.

Top 4 Autonomous Communities with the highest growth in 2017

• Castilla la Mancha, +24.7%, 16.693 dwellings
• Community of Madrid, +18.9%, 70.203 dwellings
• Valencian Community +18.1%, 68.512 dwellings
• Asurias +17.5%, 7537 dwellings

4 Autonomous Communities with the lowest growth in 2017

• Pais Vasco +5.4%
• Galicia +8.7%
• Extremadura +10%

If you want to compare Spanish prices vs European ones, have a look at our earlier article: What return have you made on your Spanish Property investment in 2017? And 2018?

Source: Find the press release in Spanish here

Looking for an expert in Spain? Ask us directly!

Stéphane

Senior Analyst and Strategist at HTBIS

Check the full team of HTBIS here

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+15.6% Spanish properties sold in October vs one year ago

The Statistic office of the Spanish notaries has just released the numbers for the month of October, here is our quick snapshot of the main information:

• +15.6% transactions growth to 43.504
• +14.3% transactions of existing apartments
• -7.7% transactions of newbuild apartments
• +20.3% of houses sales
• €1.328 per square meter on average, with a decrease of 0.5%
• €1.449 per square meter for existing apartments, with a decrease of 1.6%
• €1.809 per square meter for newbuild apartments, with a decrease of 11.6%
• +10% more mortgages issued to 17.706
• Average mortgage size of €127.850 for housing

More information in Spanish here

Looking for an expert in Spain? Ask us directly!

Stéphane

Senior Analyst and Strategist at HTBIS

Check the full team of HTBIS here

The post +15.6% Spanish properties sold in October 2017 appeared first on How to buy in Spain.

Spanish property transactions remain strong in September 2017:

• +8.6% Year-on-year growth for the month of September
• Prices rose by 2.4%

The Statistic office of the Spanish notaries has just released the numbers for the month of September, here is our quick snapshot of the main information:

• +8.6% transactions growth to 40.094
• +10% transactions of existing apartments
• -1.9% transactions of newbuild apartments
• €1.331 per square meter, on average, with an increase of +2.4%
• €1.493 per square meter for apartments, with an increase of +4%
• Prices rose by 3.8% for apartments
• +8.2% more mortgages issued to 16.500
• Average mortgage size of €130.300 for housing

Those numbers remain very strong and it looks like the events in Catalonia are barely impacting the general trend!

More information in Spanish here

Looking for an expert in Spain? Ask us directly!

Stéphane

Senior Analyst and Strategist at HTBIS

Check the full team of HTBIS here

The post Spanish property transactions remain strong in September 2017 appeared first on How to buy in Spain.

Purchases of properties in Spain by foreigners for the first Quarter of 2017

The weight of the purchase of foreign housing remained fairly stable in the first quarter in relative terms, presenting a rate of 13.1% of total purchases and sales. This has resulted in figures around 15,000 quarterly sales.

• the British continue to lead the ranking with 14.5% of purchases made,
• The French rise to second place with 9.6%,
• followed by Germans with 7.7%, Belgian with 6.9%, Swedes with 6.3% and Italians with 6.1%.

These top six nationalities account for more than half of total home purchases by foreigners.

Check our infographic with the data of Q3 2016 produced on the same subject:

Where are foreigners buying? Check our other infographic

Find the full press release in Spanish here.

Full quarterly report in Spanish, First Quarter 2017, Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria (ERI)

Looking for an expert in Spain? Ask us directly!

Stéphane

Senior Analyst and Strategist at HTBIS

Check the full HTBIS team here

The post Foreigners real estate activity in Spain in Q1 2017 appeared first on How to buy in Spain.

The price of housing increased by 7.7% during the last year

According to the first quarter real estate statistics published by the Association of Registrars, the price of housing increased by 7.7% during the last year.

• From January to March, 113,738 housing sales were registered, the highest result since the first quarter of 2011
• The new mortgages at fixed rate of interest carried out four out of ten operations
• The price of housing showing an increase Annual growth of 7.7% and 4.1% over the previous quarter.
• As of today, house prices mark a decrease of 22.8% from the maximum levels in 2007.
• 113,738 housing sales in the first quarter of 2017 +14.4% vs 2016

• • New housing had a significant quarter-on-quarter growth of 27.5%, with 20,490 sales were registered,
  • Used housing increased by 20.6% over the previous quarter, reaching 93,248 operations (82.0% of the total registered).

Find the full press release in Spanish here.

Full quarterly report in Spanish, First Quarter 2017, Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria (ERI) 

The post The Spanish housing price increased by 7.7% last year up to March 2017, Volumes up 14.4% appeared first on How to buy in Spain.

A yearly growth rate of 1.2%

The”Instituto Nacional de Estadistica” just released the last number of transactions for the month of February 2017, it is 35 610. Compared to February 2016, it is an annual growth of 1.2%.

La Rioja, Castile and Leon and Catalonia with strong growth rate

The analysis per region is mixed: La Rioja, Castile and Leon and Catalonia benefit from growth higher than 9% and Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque Country are falling by between 6 and 16%.

Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencian Community

The four biggest regions in terms of transactions are:

1. Andalusia with 6605 transactions and a yearly change of -2%
2. Catalonia with 6062 transactions and a yearly change of 9%
3. The Valencian Community with 5426 transactions and a yearly change of 5%
4. Madrid with 5316 transactions and a yearly change of 1%

With no surprises, the four biggest regions in term of transactions are Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencian Community. The number of transactions for those top regions in Spain is higher than 5000. Andalusia and Catalonia represent 18.5% of the transactions. Madrid and the Valencian Community represent each 15% of the transactions. It is interesting to compare this with our infographics on where the foreigners are buying real estate in Spain, you will find that Andalusia is the second biggest area for foreigners while the Valencian Community is the biggest region and Catalonia is the third.

Foreigners are active as well with 17% of the transactions in 2016. Have a look at the transaction history in Spain for both Spaniards and Foreigners:

History of Real estate transactions in Spain, Spaniards and Foreigners

Yearly data. Source: Ministerio de Fomento

Check our full report on Why should you invest in Spain in 2017?

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica

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