Home sales up by nearly 10% in a year

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), sales in September – the most recent data on record – rose by 9.7% compared with the same month in 2017, up by a comfortable 2.3 percentage points on August, when a year-on-year increase of 7.4% was reported.

In September alone, a total of 42,766 residential properties were bought and sold, the majority – 34,750 – being second-hand homes, whilst the remaining 8,016 were new builds.

Both new and used property purchases were up – the latter by 9.8% and the former by 9.6%.

A fall of 4.2% was seen in these transactions between August and September 2018, although this was less sharp than the reduction between August and September 2017, which was 6.2%.

Decreases in sales volumes are normal over the summer-autumn transition, although the fact the gap is closing is a sign of ongoing growth in the property market.

The Comunidad Valenciana, on the east coast, was the region with the highest number of property sales per head – 1.65 per 1,000 inhabitants – followed by its southern neighbour Murcia, at 1.35 per 1,000, and the Balearic Islands and Madrid at 1.31 per 1,000 each.

In terms of straight numbers, Andalucía saw the highest volume of property sales and purchases – 8,519 in total – followed by Madrid, at 6,754; the Comunidad Valenciana at 6,478, and Catalunya at 6,429.

The greatest year-on-year increases in residential home sales were seen in La Rioja in the far north, where numbers were up by 36.7%, followed by its neighbour Navarra, at 33.2%, and Murcia at 23.9%.

Only two regions – the Canary and Balearic Islands – registered an annual decline in sales, of 4.4% and 4.2% respectively.