Property sales in September up by almost 9% on last year

Data from Spain’s notaries has revealed that the Spanish property momentum shows no signs of abating, with sales of resale properties nationwide increasing by 8.7% in September compared to the same month last year…

In total, 30,328 homes changed hands that month, continuing the trend of increasing property sales for the 24^th straight month, and confirming that the recovery of the market is now in full swing.

New builds, however, continued their contraction, with the number of new homes changing hands falling by 19.7% from last September to this. Particularly, new build apartments – which represent the bulk of Spain’s oversupply of properties – are changing hands at a slower rate than for many years.

Further, property values continued to increase, with a square metre of Spanish property now retailing for an average of €1,243, which represents a nationwide increase of 2.7% in the space of a year.

Broken down further, apartments are now 2.7% more expensive nationally than they were at this stage in 2014, while detached properties are 2.3% more expensive. Respectively, this is the sixth and eighth straight increase in monthly values for these types of homes.

Behind much of this growth and improved confidence is the continued revival of the Spanish mortgage market, which has loosened lending even further as autumn has worn on. In September, some 12,048 new mortgages were granted, representing a sizeable 17.4% increase on 2014.

The average loan capital offered by Spanish banks has also increased slightly – by 0.1% – to €122,993. The data shows that in September, 39.7% of all property transactions were partly financed by a mortgage, and of these homes that mortgage covered an average of 77.1% of the purchase price.

Read between the lines and it would appear that the average buyer in Spain requires a deposit of around 20-25% in order to buy a property.