Applications for new builds skyrocketed by 26.8% in the first nine months of 2017. A total of 60,695 were made during this time, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Fomento).
If it turns out this rate continued for the last three months of the year, 2017 will finish with around 81,000 applications. This will be the highest number for seven years, since 2010 when 91,600 applications were made.
The rate will also be 26% higher than the over 64,000 licences issued in 2016 and be the fourth year in a row of increases. Applications made between January and September were mostly for apartment blocks with a total of 45,990, 30.4% more than 2016 and over 75% of the total. Licences for detached homes totalled 14,675, up 16.8%.
