Falling rates stimulate home purchases by 12.5% and bring the party back into the real estate sector.
Repeated interest rate cuts facilitated by the European Central Bank (ECB) are benefiting the residential real estate sector, which had been taken for granted in the market. September confirmed the trend of a recovery in home sales following the easing of mortgage lending, with a 12.5% year-on-year increase, the sixth straight month in which statistics have improved to 2023 levels, according to Council data. General notary. On this occasion, 55,033 houses were closed, which means that by the end of the year the number of deals signed last year will significantly exceed the 642,432 deals.
There are currently 515,000 homes in deals. He opened the champagne to celebrate the best year since the brick crisis began. At that time, 721,351 homes were sold, both new and used.
As happened at that time, the increase in sales has now spread throughout Spain. Only in Navarre the number of operations decreased compared to September last year, after registering a decrease of 4%. In addition, there were more regions progressing above the national average than those that remained below it, which is especially true in Basque Country (+39.8%) and Madrid (+24.5%), but no less worthy in Castile-La Mancha (+23.3%), Castile and Leon (+21.9%), Asturias (+20.0%), Extremadura (+17.0%), Cantabria (+16%), Rioja (+14%), Catalonia (+13.3%) and Murcia (+12.7%).
They also advanced in home purchases, although below the national average. Galicia (+12.0%), Balearic Islands (+6.2%), Andalusia (+4.9%), Valencian Community (+4.7%), Aragon (+4.5%) and Canary Islands (+4.4%).
By housing type, apartment sales increased by 11.4% year-on-year to reach 41,712 units, while detached house (villa) sales increased by 16.2% to reach 13,321 units.
Mortgage restoration
The fact that the easing of mortgage conditions played a special role in the development of the purchase and sale market is evidenced by the number of loans for the purchase of housing, which grew twice as much as the number of transactions. In September, 25,794 mortgages were signed across Spain, up 26% on the same month in 2023. in just the ninth month of the year. In this type of financed acquisition, the loan amount averaged 72.2% of the price.
At the height of this recovery, house prices also rose to €1,757 per square meter in September, up 4.2% from the same month in 2023, according to notaries. On a differentiated basis, the cost of apartments increased by 5.6% compared to the same month last year, reaching 1,990 euros per square meter, while the cost of single-family houses averaged 1,356 euros per meter, or 2.4%.