August 12, 2022

Record figures on the property market for the first half of the year

The housing market in Spain has shown its best half-year in 15 years. This is mainly thanks to the sale of existing homes, which between January and June hit a historical record.

Close to 331,000 homes changed owner in Spain during the first semester of 2022. This is a level not reached since 2007, when a total of 342,000 homes were sold in the second half of the year. During the first half of 2007, which came to be the peak before the market then started to cool down, a whopping 432,000 homes had been sold. This can be read in the newspaper El País.

The difference between the current year and the record year 2007, however, is that large quantities of new production were sold then. It represented a full ten percent of GDP. Between January and June this year, however, only a fifth of the homes sold were newly built. It is thus the second-hand market that is currently driving the real estate market forward.

According to the statistical institute INE, close to 270,000 second-hand homes were sold in Spain during the first half of the year. It is a hitherto unprecedented level, beating the previous record with 14,000 operations. This means that the current level of sales is thus above the level of the previous property boom. Just like then, prices are currently rising.

The upward trend in the housing market started already at the end of 2021 and has both continued and strengthened in 2022. In July 2021, more than 50,000 homes were sold, a figure not reached since 2008. However, the record has been significantly beaten since then, as approximately 60,000 homes have been sold per month in recent months.

In addition to the trend that it is the second-hand market that is the strongest right now, there is also a clear tendency towards more and more purchases being made by companies instead of private individuals. However, it is still private purchases that dominate, 54,000 out of a total of 58,000 purchases in June.