Home sales end their worst month since the pandemic after falling 21%

In the fifth month of the year, 44,013 transactions were registered in the administration and in the first five months of the year there was a decrease of 4.1%

 

The purchase and sale of homes has decreased again. In the fifth month of the year, 44,013 residential property transactions were registered across Spain, a decrease of 21.5% year on year. This is the biggest drop since September last year and the worst result for a month of May since 2020, in the middle of the health crisis.

According to the INE, the year-on-year decline in house sales in May is due to both the decline in the number of transactions in new-build apartments, which fell by 14.4% to 9,105, and transactions in existing homes. These fell by 23.2% year on year in May, to 34,908 transactions.

Of the homes sold in May, 92.3% were private homes and 7.7% were protected homes. In total, sales of non-subsidized homes fell by 21.7% year on year to 40,611 transactions, while sales of subsidized homes fell by 19.1% to 3,402 transactions.

On a monthly basis (May compared to April), home sales fell by 17.1%, while in the first five months of 2024 they fell by 4.1%.

All autonomous communities recorded decreases in the number of transactions. Asturias (-25.8%), Andalusia (-25.0%) and Catalonia (-24.5%) recorded the largest declines, while the Basque Country (-3.0%), La Rioja (-8.6%) and Extremadura (-14.2%) recorded the smallest declines.

Francisco Iñareta, spokesperson for idealista, stated that “although the peak in the number of transactions in April suggested that the market would tend towards stabilization, the figures for May show another significant decline. This may be related to rising prices, but has undoubtedly also been influenced by the update of the computer systems for preparing documents between notaries and clerks for several days in May, which postponed many transactions. This delay has caused many purchases to be postponed to June.”

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