Sales figures were stagnant across Spain for the third month in row, latest data from the countries’ notaries show. These report y-o-y increases of just 0.3% in the number of houses sold and of 6.1% in mortgage activity in January 2009.

These figures seem to show some signals of slowing down in the level of activity in Spain’s real estate market, after a long period of significant growth. In November, the notaries confirmed a year-on-year drop in sales figures for the first time in 2018, albeit a very slight one (the decrease has been revised to just 0.2%), and in December the upward movement was a mere 3%, whereas as recently as last summer double-digit increases were still the norm.

During the first month of 2019, according to the notaries’ provisional figures, were recorded 40,388 sales and purchases following a general upward trend which began in early 2013, and the average price paid for units of housing rose by 2.6% to 1,424 €/sqm.

Meanwhile, the number of mortgages constituted on housing purchases during January was 19,390, 6.1% more than in the same month in 2018, and the average loan capital was up by 0.9% at €135,616. Both this figure and the average market price of property have risen in each of the last nine months.

These data show that 48% of all purchases were financed by mortgage loans in January – the figure still has not reached 50% since 2010 – and that in these cases the mortgages accounted for an average of 74.7% of the sale price, close to the lowest proportion in the last 12 years.

Original Story: Murcia Today | News

Photo: FreeImages.com/Blues 57

Edition:Prime Yield