MADRID – Despite historic highs, home sales in Spain fell 6.4% in June compared to the same month last year.
This is evident from data published by the statistics agency INE on Friday. A total of 53,999 homes have been sold, which is 4,000 fewer than in June 2022. Despite the decline, the housing market remains at historically high levels. Moreover, it is the second-highest figure in the last 15 years.
However, this is the fifth month in a row in which a decline in home sales has been recorded. In the first half of 2023, there was a decrease of 4% with a total sale of 315,000 homes. Furthermore, rising interest rates have pushed mortgage payments to historic highs.
Also see: Cash purchases of homes reach a historic height in Spain
Moderate decline in the housing market
Except for January, this year’s trend appears to be a relatively moderate decline in the housing market, with five consecutive months of negative data. Compared to the previous month, May, transactions were down 3.8%, just like last year.
Transactions of new homes have risen
Notably, used home sales fell by 9.7% to 43,532 transactions in the sixth month of the year, while new apartment transactions rose by 10.7% to 10,467 transactions.
Andalucia leads in the number of housing transactions
Andalucia leads the list of regions with the highest number of house sales in June. According to the recorded data, the regions with the highest number of transactions per 100,000 inhabitants are Comunidad Valenciana (225), Región de Murcia (170) and Andalucia (159).
In absolute terms, Andalucia was the region with the most housing transactions during the sixth month of the year, with a total of 10,753 sales. It was followed by the Comunidad Valenciana (9,157) and Catalonia (8,187).
Navarra (+5.1%), Asturias (+1.9%) and Comunidad Valenciana (+1.1%) were the only regions with positive annual sales variation, while La Rioja (-20.5%), Cantabria ( -18.8%) and Extremadura (-15.8%) showed the strongest decreases.
Especially urban properties
Of all transactions in May, 87.9% were related to urban properties, which include residential properties, and 12.1% to rural properties. Urban property sales were down 0.9% year-on-year, while rural property sales were down 6% compared to June 2022, with 93,190 and 12,861 transactions, respectively.
