According to information provided by the General Council of the Notaries of Spain, the number of real estate purchase-sale contracts increased by 21.1% in the first quarter of 2022. In real terms, the growth reached 173,493 transactions. 70,812 transactions were conducted in March this year. Due to this fact, last March became a record month for the first time in terms of sales among other similar months since 2007.
Property transactions grew by 48.8% since the first quarter of 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 116,575 transactions were registered at that time. Current figures exceed by 24.6% the figures received before the pandemic, in the first quarter of 2019. Between January and March 2019, the Council of Notaries recorded 139,234 housing sales transactions.
This year, there is an important growth trend. In March, 70,812 transactions were approved. This is up 15.5% from March a year earlier. The rate was higher by 28.7% compared to February 2022. Only 55,012 transactions were approved that month. In January of this year, the number of notarized contracts reached only 47,669 units.
In March, real estate sales rose in all the autonomous communities of Spain. The only exception is the community of Navarre. Sales dropped by 11.9% there. The Basque Country also decreased by 7.4%.
At the same time, the following communities can be distinguished among the autonomous communities with the largest number of closed contracts: the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha, and the Balearic Islands — by 44.9%, 29.2%, 23.1%, 21.8%, and 21.4% respectively.
The highest increase in property types is among apartments. They grew by 17.9% during March of this year to March 2021. The monthly transaction volume reached 54,434 transactions. Home sales grew by 8.5% with 16,377 transactions in March 2022, in annual terms.
Housing costs
According to the Council of Notaries, in March, the price for 1 square meter of residential real estate increased by 9.3% on average in annual terms throughout the country. However, in some locations, growth was higher than the average, for example, in the Balearic Islands, in Navarre, Madrid, and Galicia — by 24.5%, 17.3%, 16.7% and 15.7% each.
At the other end of the spectrum are districts that showed a decrease in the number of transactions over the specified period. Extremadura takes the lead. There, the price per square meter fell by 1.3%. Prices fell by 0.9% in La Rioja and the Basque Country as well. Also, a decline occurred in Castile-La Mancha — by 0.8%.
There was an increase in residential property prices in 13 regions. And, according to information provided by the Council of Notaries, property prices decreased in the remaining 4 regions.
The state of the mortgage market
In addition to the overall increase in housing sales and the growing costs, there has been an rise in the number of mortgages throughout Spain. In March of this year, the number of open mortgages reached 36,240 loans. It is 8.9% more than a year earlier.
In 2022 the average mortgage amount was 147,722 euros, which is much higher than in 2021. More than half of home sales, and more specifically 51.3%, were taken out through a mortgage loan. On average, the mortgage covered 73.8% of the total price of the purchased unit.
The total number of mortgage loans increased in 13 autonomous communities. Cantabria (38.1%), Canary Islands (18.4%), La Rioja (16.9%), Andalusia (16.4%), Galicia (15.4%), Catalonia (13 .9%) and Asturias (12.6%) achieved double-digit figures.
The number of new loans decreased in the remaining 4 autonomous communities: in the Basque Country by 9.6%, in Navarre by 6%, in Murcia by 2.5%, and in Castile and León by 0.9%.
The average cost of new housing mortgages has increased in 14 autonomous communities. La Rioja, Navarre, and the Balearic Islands showed the highest rise — by 70.1%, 14.6%, and 12% each. On the contrary, the average cost of new loans decreased in Cantabria, Aragon, and Valencia — by 16.1%, 5.6% and 0.9%, respectively.