House sales for November in Spain

Yesterday the INE issued the transfer of property rights data for November 2013.

What were November property sales

November property sales showed another decline both month on month and annually. This is perhaps no surprise given last year completions were high in November and December as buyers in Spain completed on new builds before the increase in IVA came into effect in January 2013.

Sales of property to Spanish residents has continued to decline due to the economic situation and high jobless rates.

Who is buying in Spain.

There appears to be some evidence that in Spain nonresidents buying in Spain from other nationalities are staring to increase. This is borne out by the fact that the coastal regions and in particular the Canary Islands are either showing lower declines than the rest of Spain, or in the case of the Canaries an increase in 2013 over 2012.

Lawyers in Spain and estate agents are commenting on a marked increase in cash buyers from Northern Europe, Germany, Russia and China. UK buyers still appear to be thin on the ground.

What level of decline in house sales are being reported

Total transfers of property which includes all properties and all types of transfers stood at 130,787 in November 2013. This is a 3.2% reduction on the annual rate.

Where the transfer related to residential housing and actual purchases the drop was 15.9% annually and a drop of 4.1% from October 2013. The completions on sales of houses in November was the lowest November for over 5 years and the worst November since before the crisis began.

What is the split or purchases between new and resales

Resales are holding up better than new builds. 45% of all sales of residential property were new builds and 55% was resales. New Builds partly due to the high number completed in the last two months of 2012 were down 22.1% and resales were down 10.1%.

Only the Canaries showed an increase of 13.5% for the period.

Are there any other trends

The key and most worrying trend of 2013 is that the largest increase in property transfers is coming from “Other Titles” this includes repossessions where the title is transferring to the Bank. The level of actual private sales was 21,847 in November and the amount of transactions in other titles was nearly as high at 19,560.