Notary data shows 4.5% sales increase in December for Spanish property

Data from Spain’s notaries shows that home sales in the country rose in December 2017 for the eighth consecutive month, reaching 48,956 confirmed transactions.

That figure is a 4.5% increase on December 2016, which – while a lower year-on-year increase compared to previous months – is still an encouraging sign, particularly at a time of year when sales activity traditionally slumps…

In the seven preceding months, which also exhibited encouraging sales increases, the average year-on-year rise was typically in double digits, and rose above 20% in the months of June, August and October compared to those same months in 2016.

Nevertheless, few in the industry are worried about any sort of slump. Indeed, if a 4.5% monthly increase was averaged out throughout 2018 then it would represent a solid year for Spanish property. As things stand, however, December’s statistic is likely to be a minor blip, with many leading industry analysts expecting more double-digit growth this year.

Further analysis of December’s data shows that the average mortgage loan capital was also lower in 2017 than it was in December 2016, falling by 0.1% to €138,694. Again, as a standalone month it is difficult to deduce what this means, but it certainly bucked a trend of steadily rising mortgage lending for the preceding seven months.

The notary data showed that 40.5% of all homes bought in December last year were completed with a residential mortgage, with the loan capital averaging at 74.8% of the purchase price – figures that are more or less in line with the rest of the year.