According to the analysis report "Perfil del comprador de obra nueva" (transl. "Profile of a new property buyer"), prepared by the real property portal Fotocasa, it became known that in the last 12 months, there were three buyers of a new-builts for every 10 buyers of residential property in Spain. In view of this, the question arose why interest in this type of real property suddenly increased?
It follows from the report results that the main reasons to buy a new housing were: the basic desire to improve current living conditions; the need for more living space for a family that has already grown or is expecting a new child in the near future; desire to invest in real property or purchase new housing for greater independence.
A similar situation is reflected in the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Spain. In the Home Sales Statistics analysis, certain fluctuations can be seen in the new housing sales registration: if the statistics from March 2020 (approx. the beginning of the pandemic) is compared with the data for January 2022, a 50% increase in the new-builts sales number can be observed at the national level.
The new-builts sales number have increased by 50% at the national level
When comparing March 2020 sales to January 2022, a change of 50.26% is recorded. More specifically, when the pandemic first hit Spain in March, 6,650 new houses were bought in the country. Almost two years later, 9,992 properties of the same category were sold in January 2022. The difference between the periods is 3,342 transactions.
The largest growth was recorded in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia
If the change in the transactions number is considered by Autonomous Communities (AC), it can be seen that it was in Andalusia that the largest increase in new residential real property sales was observed in 2022 compared to the beginning of the pandemic. Andalusia recorded an increase by 89% in the sales number: 1,245 new apartments were purchased in March 2020 and 2,353 apartments in January 2022. The difference is 1,108 properties.
Andalusia is followed by AS Madrid. Although in percentage terms, the region showed an increase by only 49.26%, nevertheless it comes second in terms of the difference in the net volume of properties sold: 597 residential properties. In comparison, the list includes communities such as Melilla, which showed a growth of 375%, but in real terms the number of sales increased from 4 to 19 properties.
But let’s return to the leaders of the list. The third place belongs to Catalonia, where an increase by 47.65% was recorded. In net transaction volume, sales have increased from 1,020 to 1,506 residential properties over two years, i.e. the difference is 486 housing units.
Malaga, Barcelona and Almería showed the largest growth among the provinces in the number of residential real property transactions
Focusing on the data and looking at the changes at the provincial level, it can be seen that Málaga, Barcelona and Almería are leading the growth in new-built sales with 533, 265 and 171 properties sold respectively.
The increase by 168% was recorded in Malaga, with 316 new houses purchased in March 2020 and 849 in January this year. The difference between the two periods is 533 sales and purchases.
Although Barcelona does not show as impressive percentage growth as Malaga, this province still occupies the second place in the list - 34.60%. The small change in percentage is due to the fact that as early as in March 2020 quite a lot of new housing properties were being sold in the region. In particular, 766 new-builts were sold in the specified period of 2020, while in January 2022 the number increased to 1,031 properties. As it can be seen, the difference is 265 units.
The third place was taken by the province of Almeria. In the pandemic year, 149 new houses were sold in the region. By January 2022, their number has increased by 114.77% and reached 320 residential properties.
