MARKET REPORT
It’s been a slow train coming, but after several years of crisis there are finally some signs of light at the end of the tunnel for the Spanish property market - and in particular on the Costa del Sol.
The latest Transfer of property right statistics released by the National Statistics Institute show that home sales in Spain rose by 11.1% in 2015, over the previous year, reaching a total of 354,132 transactions –where the region to register most housing transactions last year, in absolute terms, was Andalucía with a total of 70,739. This marks a second consecutive year of increases which, according to the Institute’s data, has been driven by the second hand housing market, and is the best figure recorded since 2011.
There are similar improvements to spot in Spanish housing prices. According to figures from the European Commission statistic office, house prices rose 4,5 % in the third quarter compared with the same period in the previous year. Although this year-to-year increase is higher than the rest of the European Union, a look at the quarter-to-quarter increases shows a rise in the Spanish price at 0,7%.
And while it mostly have been foreign buyers in recent years, that has ensured a demand for housing in Spain, there is now so much growth in the Spanish economy that also the Spanish households will contribute to an increased demand, causing a moderate increase in real estate prices, which are to be expected in the housing market 2016/2017.
Spain is and will probably continue to be the star of the euro area in terms of economic growth. Which has a positive impact on the housing market.
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MARKET REPORT - GROWTH