The property sector continues to display a stable behaviour in consideration of the current political and economic context in Europe. Although the war between Ukraine and Russia and inflation have set off some alarm bells, the Spanish residential market continues to show great resilience in terms of home sales and purchases.
In this context, thanks to the figures released by the Spanish National Statistics Institute, we know home sales and purchases continue to rise in Spain, although somewhat moderately during the month of April. Transactions increased by 11.9% compared to the same month in 2021, 47,349 transactions, the best figure for the month of April since 2008, when more than 54,800 sales and purchases were completed. However, this is a far cry from figures during March, when there was a 25.6% increase compared to the previous March.
The year-on-year upturn in property sales and purchases in April was the result of both the increase in new home transactions, which rose by 3.4% to 8,788 transactions, and the 14% increase in the sale and purchase of second-hand properties, totalling 38,561 transactions. Furthermore, if figures are analysed on a quarterly basis, house sales and purchases advanced 23.1% during the first 4 months of the year, with increases of 26.3% in the case of second-hand properties and 11.5% in the case of new ones.
When Autonomous Communities are concerned, the regions with the highest number of transfers per 100,000 inhabitants were the Valencian Community (159), Andalusia (149), and Catalonia (133), 3 of the most dynamic markets in Spain. The regions with the highest annual increases in the number of property sales during April were the Balearic Islands (+33.3%), the Canary Islands (+31.0%), and Castilla-Leon (+19.9%). While La Rioja (-9.9%), Madrid (-2.7%), and Extremadura (-2.4%) recorded the largest decreases.