Spain releases 2012 property sale data

The statistical institute in Spain today released the full year figures for house sales and property transfers in 2012.

• Total annual Spanish property transfers dropped from 2.228 million in 2008 to 1.598 million in 2012.

• Of these residential dwellings totaled 552.1 in 2008, in comparison to 319.1 in 2012.

• Total property transfers including sales, donations, swaps and inheritance for 2012 was 698.226 a decrease of 3% from 2011.

The decrease of property sales designated as residential dwellings dropped by 8.6% year on year. This continuing trend is a reflection of the worldwide financial situation as well as the internal issues in Spain and also the tightening of Spanish Mortgages and other credits across Spain.

Urban property sales of 319.058 properties was down 11.3% from 2011 but Rustic property sales of 104.544 showed a slight increase of 0.9%. This is somewhat surprising particularly given Spanish Banks are barely lending against Rustic properties, but may be an indication of a move by the Spanish population back to the country areas and away from Cities.

Andalucía saw the highest amount of actual property sales in 2012 although Andalucía was also one of the regions with the largest overall percentage decrease from 2011.

VPO or protected housing saw a massive 20% decrease year on year with privately sold housing holding up much better. VPO housing is traditionally bought by the poorer population sectors and these are the very people who have been hardest hit by unemployment so this static is a reflection of the overall economic situation.

On a slightly more positive note the year on year decreases of Spanish property sales experienced since 2008 slowed from previous years. This may have been a reflection of some of the sweeteners put in place last year to encourage house sales. These included lower IVA for new builds and  CGT breaks.

The IVA reduction appears to have helped the sale of new builds possibly at the expense of resale’s 49.5% of all properties sold were new builds a reduction of 9.3% from 2011, for resale’s which made up the other 50.5% of sales the reduction year on year was 13.2%.