Spanish home sales in March, and the first quarter, were the highest since the boom year of 2007, as buyers rushed in before borrowing costs rise.
There were 70,812 homes sold in March of this year, and 173,688 sold in the first quarter, according to the latest data from the notaries’ association. The chart above shows monthly sales going back to the start of 2019, with sales in the blue columns (left axis) and the year-on-year change in black (right column).
If you look at sales every March going back a decade (next chart) you get a clear idea of how the market is booming. Sales in March were 16% up on last year, and 37% up on 2019, the year before the pandemic. Compared to 2020, when the market was laid low by lockdown, sales were up 118%.
For the bigger picture check out the 12-month rolling sales figure in the next chart, with the annualised change in black. The post-pandemic recovery that started in 2021 has been dramatic.
Sales by region
If you look at the regional picture, sales and sales growth was strong in all the regions of interest to foreign investors. Sales were up by double-digits in all regions bar Murcia, with the biggest growth in the Canaries (+45%) and the Balearics (+21%). In the most popular destinations, sales were up 23% in Andalusia and 21% in the Valencian region. The two charts below show sales and growth in March and the first quarter.
The figures show that the post-pandemic recovery continues unabated, partly due to unleashed pent-up demand for property for sale in Spain, but also because of high inflation pushing people towards hard assets, and rising interest rates encouraging buyers to move now before borrowing costs rise to more normal levels.
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