According to the latest data published by the National Statistics Institute, the sale of homes in Spain fell by a further 27.6% in February compared with the same month in 2013, to a total of 25,717 closed transactions.
This decline was more than four points higher than January, when housing sales fell by 23.2%, and accumulates 10 consecutive months of declines. Month-on-month (February over January), home sales fell by 16.1%, its biggest decline in this month since 2010.
El Mundo reported that the drop in home sales in February was due mainly to the decline in new home transactions, of 37.4%, to a total of 11,544 operations. Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes fell by 17% to a total of 14,173 transactions.
The largest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants was registered in Valencia (94), while Andalusia continued in the lead for house sales in the second month of the year, with 5,182 transactions, followed by Valencia (3,842), Madrid (3,776) and Catalonia (3,625). The regions registering the fewest home sales in February were La Rioja (212), Cantabria (282) and Asturias (418).
In relative terms, the only region where the sale of homes increased year-on-year was the Canary Islands (+5%), while the largest decreases, year-on-year, were registered for Asturias (-43.5%), La Rioja and Cantabria (both -42.2%) and Galicia (-41.2%).