The latest data published last week by the National Statistics Institute shows that sales of homes in Spain rose by 23.6% in May, compared to the same month of 2015, reaching a total of 36,425 transactions, and represents the highest figure registered since January 2013, when 39,920 transactions were carried out.
With this increase, home sales have accumulated four consecutive months of year-on-year increases. However, even though the increase registered in May was quite significant, it was less than the growth recorded in April, when home sales climbed by 29% year-on-year.
The second hand market and, to a lesser extent, sales of new homes, were responsible for the May increase. Specifically, second hand home sales increased by 26.7% year-on-year, to a total of 29,422 transactions, while sales of new homes increased by 12% year-on-year, to reach a total of 7,003 transactions.
In the first five months of the year, home sales accumulated an increase of 15.8% over the same period of 2015, as a result of the 21.9% increase registered in transactions on second hand homes, as transactions on new housing fell by 3.4%.
In May, the highest numbers of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants were registered in the Balearic Islands (159) and La Rioja (155).
Andalucía was the region to register most home sales in the fifth month of the year, with 7,013 transactions, followed by Catalonia (5,591), Valencia (5,082) and Madrid (4,952). In contrast, the regions which registered the least home sales transactions in May were La Rioja (380), Navarre (390) and Cantabria (416).
In relative terms, home sales rose in all of Spain’s regions except for Navarre, which registered a decline of 20.2% compared with May 2015. The most significant increases were recorded for the Balearic Islands (+70%), La Rioja (+68.9%) and Murcia (+61.8%), while the most minor increases were recorded for Cantabria (+1.7%) and Galicia (+7.8%).
