February confirms the good start of sales in 2018, with over 40,000 transactions per month

There was a 16.2% interannual increase in property sales in Spain since February last year

16 April 2018, 13:22

The number of property transactions in February increased by 16.2% year-on-year to 41,480 transactions, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística or INE). This is the best figure for a month of February since 2011 and the fourth best figure in the series since the beginning of the economic recovery. These numbers reinforce the January figures, which recorded the highest sales since 2008.

In February, property purchases and sales had some of their best figures in recent years. With 41,480 transactions, they grew by 16.2% year-on-year, they confirm the good start to 2018, according to the INE. While January saw the best figures in the last 10 years, with more than 47,000 sales, February is still rising above the 40,000-transactions mark and despite a 12.3% monthly drop, it is still the best month of February since 2011. The number of sales have grown in 24 of the last 25 months.

By housing type, 81.9% of sales were of second-hand properties. In fact, the 33,963 used homes bought or sold in February represent the fourth best record since 2008. Their numbers have increased in 47 of the last 48 months.

Meanwhile, sales of new constructions also grew. They rose 16.4% year-on-year, making an accumulated 10 consecutive months of increases.

By region, the communities with the greatest annual increases were Cantabria (42.1%), the Canary Islands (31%) and Castile-La Mancha (27.5%). Extremadura (-2.9%), Navarra (4.1%) and Castile and León (4.7%) recorded the lowest rates in February.

For Fernando Encinar, Head of Research at idealista, "the inter-monthly drop should not be cause for alarm, as February is a time when seasonally the number of transactions recorded is lower. Even so, both the interannual data and those accumulated over the last 12 months show sustained growth of over 16%, which underscores the good health of the market and offers an optimistic outlook for the coming months".