Property Purchases Register the Best August in Five Years

The number of property purchases during the month of August this year registered its highest figure since 2010 and sees the most active eighth month in the last five years.

In a month that is generally quiet due to the heat and the fact that many people take the whole month off work to spend on holiday, a total of 29,369 operations were registered, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE). This is an annual increase of a massive 24.2%.

The number of properties being sold now registers 12 months of positive figures in annual terms, says the INE report, where much of the success is down to the volume of second-hand or re-sale properties being sold.

The figures have been taken from the Property Registry lists, which means that the actual signing before the notary took place 2-3 months beforehand. Nevertheless, this is still the best August Spain has had since 2010.

With regards to the previous month, however, property purchases were down 10.2%, but this is nothing out of the ordinary and is a natural trend. In saying this, the difference between property purchases in July and August last year (2014) was much greater at 17.7%, so this year’s figures are much more positive and obviously welcome news for the sector.

As mentioned previously, the bulk of all property purchases in Spain concentrated on re-sale properties. In August, 79.8% (23,428) of purchases involved this type of property. This is in contrast to the falling number of sales of new builds.

In fact, for the first time since records began in 2007, the number of sales of new builds has not reached 6,000 operations (5,941).

Regarding property sales in Spain’s autonomous regions, the greatest amount of purchases in August this year took place in Andalusia (5,984). This was followed by the Valencia Region, Alicante in particular, with 4,335, Cataluña (4,286) and Madrid (4,242).

The biggest annual increases, however, were registered in Murcia (+49.9%) and Aragón (+39.5%). The only region in which property purchases were down in August from last year’s figures was Castille and León (-0.5%).

Source: www.idealista.com