Record new-build completions paint bright picture of property market

RESIDENTIAL properties under construction in Spain being abandoned at half-mast were a common sight during the worst years of the financial crisis, but more are being finished off now than ever since the housing market began to recovery.

Between January and July this year – the latest figures available at present – a total of 33,085 homes, mostly apartments, were completed, says the central government's ministry of public works.

This represents a 39% hike on the same seven months in 2016, a year which saw the numbers of new builds finished off fall for the ninth consecutive 12-month period.

Since Spain's record high of 641,419 new properties being completed, in 2007, the total had plummeted by 94% by the end of last year.

Of the 33,085 finished by the end of July 2017, a total of 97.7% - or 32,312 – were built by private-sector developers, with the remaining 773 built by public authorities, or 2.3%.

Since the same period in 2016, private developments have gone up by 37.4% – but although local authority properties were much higher in proportion last year, they have still more than doubled so far this year in number, from the 318 completed in 2016.

Nearly two-thirds of homes completed between January and July 2017 inclusive were the work of private-sector companies – 20,043 overall, a year-on-year rise of 46.3%.

Another 10,706 were built by individuals or freehold communities, up by 22.8%, and 1,287 by cooperatives, a rise of 81.8%, with the remaining 276 being developers of other legal status.

The amount of money spent on finishing off new-build residential homes in the first seven months of this year rose by 45% on the same period in 2016, to a total of just under €4.4 billion.