Property sales break half-million barrier for first time since financial crisis
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 @ 3:23 PM
FOR the first time since before the financial crisis, annual house sales in Spain have broken the half-a-million barrier, say the latest figures, with a 10.1% hike in residential property changing hands in 2018.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), a total of 515,051 homes were sold in 2018 – a factor attributed to a combination of economic growth, financial strength, improvements in the job market, and residential property being much cheaper now than just before the ‘bubble’ burst in 2008.
INE data show that last year saw the market beginning to plateau, with the most moderate rise in purchase growth since 2014 – a year when the number of transactions only rose by 2%, compared with 11.5% the following year, 14% in 2016, and 15.4% in 2017.
But sales numbers at the end of last year were their highest in a decade, and both new builds and second-hand homes were behind the annual growth, according to the INE.
This fifth year of increases in home sales numbers is in stark contrast to the worst years of the financial crisis – 2008 and 2009, when property purchases plunged by 25.1% and 28.8% respectively.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com