Residential property sales and prices in Spain are rising year on year and more new mortgages are being granted, suggesting the market continues to recover from the economic downturn.
The latest figures from the General Council of Notaries show that in September sales increased by 8.7%, house prices rose by 1.7%, and the number of new mortgage loans granted grew by 17.4%.
Overall sales stood at 30,328 transactions in September but sales of new homes are not doing well. Indeed, while second hand homes sales increased by 13% year on year, sales of new homes fell by 19.7%. Sales of individual family homes also registered significant growth of 14.7% year on year.
The data also shows that the average price per square meter was €1,242, a rise of 1.7% compared to September 2014. Apartments saw prices rise by 2.7% year on year and individual family homes were up 2.3%.
A breakdown of the figures shows that new apartments are doing better than existing sales. The average price per square metre of second hand apartments was €1,359, a rise of 2% year on year, while the average price for new apartments was €1,632 euros per square metre, an increase of 13.6% year on year.
The Notaires report also says that the home mortgage market in Spain is improving and mirroring the upturn in the real estate sector. The number of new loans approved increased by 17.4% year on year. The average mortgage value was €122,993, a rise of 0.1% compared to September 2014.
The statistics also shows that the percentage of home purchases financed through a mortgage was 39.7%, with the average amount of the loan 77.1% of the property value.
The latest quarterly data from property registrars confirms the good news. They show that prices increased by 6.6% year on year in the third quarter of 2015, and 2.2% quarter on quarter. It means that prices are now 28.4% below the peak of the market in 2007.
The data also shows that sales increased by 6.4% quarter on quarter and 16.6% year on year but they also confirm that new home sales are not doing as well. Quarter on quarter existing homes sales increased by 8.8% while new home sales fell by 2.5%.
There has also been an increase in foreign buyers. They bought 13.5% of properties sold in the third quarter compared to 12.8% in the second quarter of 2015.
British buyers were the most prolific with 23% of sales to overseas buyers, followed by the French at 8.7%, Germans at 6.4%, Swedes also at 6.4% and Belgians at 5.5%. The number of Russian buyers continue to fall, down to 3.4%.
