Spain property: prices and mortgage approvals on the up

Rising prices, rising sales, more mortgages – Spain’s property market is looking healthier with every passing day.

Two sets of data released over the weekend have offered further confirmation that the Spanish property market is on an increasingly even keel.

Firstly, financial advice firm Arcano crunched the numbers of property prices from all 17 of Spain’s regions and found that the average price increase in the first quarter of 2016 was 6.9% when compared to the same period last year…

All 17 regions saw prices increase, while the number of transactions for the quarter was 10% higher than in 2015. Arcano’s analysts put this positive data down to Spain’s general economic recovery – domestic demand was significantly stronger in 2016’s first quarter than the year prior – and sustained interest from British, German and French buyers.

Arcano also reported that Spain’s excess stock of new and completed properties has reduced to practically nothing – as evidenced by an increase in building applications. A mere 46,000 new residential homes were completed in Spain in 2015, but that figure is expected to rise in 2016.

These trends were backed up by numbers released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which revealed that 14.5% more mortgages were approved in March this year compared to last year.

In total there were 22,983 new mortgages registered in March, while the average mortgage value also increased by 4.8%, reaching €107,861 – which is further proof of increased confidence in the sector, rising house prices and looser lending criteria among Spanish banks.