The latest monthly home sales figures for Spain have been released and they paint a fascinating picture of a buoyant property market. January sales figures have not been so high in years, with 2023 boasting the second-best number of January property sales since 2007. January 2023 saw 44,569 home sales witnessed by notaries in January, according to the latest data from the Spanish notaries’ association. This is a decline of 7% when compared to the 2022 figure for the same month, which was the highest number of January property sales since 2007.
So, what does this mean for the overall Spanish property market? Does this form the basis of a trend going into 2023? And which Spanish regions are seeing the largest and fewest number of property sales? Here’s everything you need to know:
What Do January’s Sale Figures Show?
The sales figures released by the notaries’ association for January 2023 show that the market is coming off the boil slightly and that there has been a small decline in sales figures for the country. But this shouldn’t be viewed as bad news, necessarily, as sales figures in the country are still near record levels.
This isn’t the first month that sales figures have shown a slight decline: they have been falling slowly since January 2022. In January 2022, the number of property sales had grown by an annualized 36%, but this figure had fallen to a decline of 18% by December 2022. Whilst January sales figures are showing a continued trend of slight decline in the market, the fact that the number of properties sold is so high means that, for now at least, the Spanish property market is nowhere near being in a slump. This is good news for both homeowners and house hunters alike.
Is the Post-Pandemic Boom Running Out of Steam?
During the coronavirus pandemic, property sales slumped considerably, not only in Spain, but in wider Europe and many countries worldwide too. This was driven by lockdowns which prevented house hunters from viewing properties and uncertainty about the financial markets, vaccines, and the duration of the lockdown periods. This pandemic slump was followed by a post-pandemic boom that saw property sales figures in Spain rise to rates almost as high as those seem in the original Spanish property boom of the noughties. Suppressed demand for overseas property was fulfilled and sales figures skyrocketed. It makes sense that in the two years since this boom began, it is now running out of steam, and we are seeing sales figures stabilise in Spain again. But although post-pandemic growth has diminished, that doesn’t mean that sales have also declined: these figures are still at near record levels.
Which Regions Are Seeing the Highest Sales Figures?
Much of the post-pandemic property boom focused on areas that are traditionally popular with holiday makers and second home buyers, such as the Canary Islands, the Balearics, and the Costa del Sol. For this reason, these are the regions that have seen the biggest fall in sales figures over the past twelve months. The region that saw the biggest twelve-month decline was the Balearics, where sales dropped by 28%. This was followed by Madrid (which saw a decline of 18%), Andalusia (which saw a decline of 8%), Catalonia (which saw a decline of 6%), Murcia (which saw a decline of 6%) and the Canaries (which saw a decline of 5%). The only region that didn’t see a drop in the number of sales when comparing January 2022 to January 2023 was Valencia, which saw sales increase by 5%.
Spanish Property Prices in January 2023
So what does the drop in the number of properties sold mean for property prices? According to the Spanish notaries association, the national average property price in Spain fell by 1.45% in January. This is the first decline since the start of the post-pandemic boom period, April 2021. This clearly demonstrates the post-pandemic price boom is over. This isn’t necessarily bad news: there is still positive price growth in all Spanish regions, with the exception of the Balearics, which have seen prices declines 21%, similar to sales. In all over regions, price growth remained positive. The regions with the most positive price growth were Madrid (+9%), the Canaries (+8%), Catalonia (+5%), Andalusia (+3%), the Valencian region (+2%), and Murcia (+1%).
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