In June, 291 houses were sold in Salamanca. In May 2019, 313 houses were sold, more than two years have passed since the sale of such a number of houses in one month. 291 houses sold in June consisted of 256 secondary ones and only 35 were newly built. The option of acquiring a secondary apartment and “preparing” for moving in is gaining popularity among residents of Salamanca.
Comparing June 2021 to June 2020 wouldn't be too fair because everyone knew about the travel restrictions at the time. The pandemic paralyzed everything, including the real estate market: only 166 houses were sold. However, since the crisis year of 2020, the sale and purchase of real estate has grown by 75% over the year.
The pandemic was a stumbling block that threatened to bring down the market, but “optimism generated by the success of vaccination processes, imminent European aid, low interest rates and increased household savings in the past year” performed a miracle and returned the sector to a state of “pre-pandemic reality”, explains real estate portal Idealista. Representatives of the portal ask “to wait for the next data to confirm whether the market stabilizes at these record numbers”. Idealista also stresses that the semester just ended was the best “in the last 13 years”.
But until INE prepares July data and confirms or refutes the good market performance, we should be proud of what was achieved in June. Salamanca had no record of similar numbers in June since 2008, weeks before the mortgage bubble burst.
Construction was frozen in September 2008 when the mortgage crisis hit the United States. The echoes of this event reached Spain and took away companies, banks and millions of euros in savings and loans. The pandemic has brought everything to a standstill for a few months, but hopefully good June 2021 data could be a real turning point.