The buying of property in Spain increases in April

The property transfer data released today show an increase in sale of residential property up 5.3% in comparison to April 2013.

Overall property transfers which also include property transferring to the Banks, donations, inheritance and swaps were down in relation to the same month of 2013 but the positive news is that the sales of dwellings has increased for the last two months.

April figures

Buying in Spain which has been in the doldrums since the start of the economic climate reached 25,000 properties in April, this was down from March when 27,000 properties were sold. The normal cycle is for more properties to be sold in April than March but never the less a two month year on year increase can only be good news.

Of the properties sold 42.7% were brand new and 57.3% were resales. This trend of resales outselling new properties has been the case for a number of years now.

Sales of new builds has hovered in the last 12 month around 10,500 per month with much bigger fluctuations seen in the sale of resales.

What is the trend by region

As experienced by Lawyers in Spain who are conducting conveyance and mortgage brokers arranging Spanish Loans the key areas of growth are the Canaries and the Balearics. Both these regions saw big increases in the sales of residential property in the month of April. The Balearics was up 28.5% and the Canaries were up 16.9%.

Cataluña which includes Barcelona also saw good increases up 13.1% and Madrid up 13.1%

This indicates that there is an increase in activity both from foreign buyers and nationals but focused on the Islands and the Cities.

Reports in these two areas of gazumping or owners who have had properties up for sale for many months getting more than one offer in quick succession are increasing daily.

One area of surprise is Andalucía renowned for its nonresident sales the region remained below last year in terms of activity. Andalucía saw a drop of 8.9% in sales of houses in comparison to April last year. The same was the case in Valencia and Murcia both of which are havens for second holiday homes.

The figures may be skewed by the overall lack of movement of Spanish nationals in these regions. Andalucía however remained the regions with the most overall sales in the month.