Spanish home sales hit 9-year-high in May

According to the official figures, the 44,782 home sales registered in May this year is also a massive 22.9% increase on May last year.

Up, up, up they go – the Spanish property market’s remarkable recovery has continued into the summer, with the latest official data from national statistics institute (INE) showing that home sales in May reached a nine-year-high…

Nine years ago was the summer of 2008 – a time when the first signs of the impending financial crash began to materialise, but generally the mood was buoyant, if a little flatter than the previous summer.

Since that date, however, Spain’s double-dip recession, the EU crisis, and the global credit crunch stripped confidence and cash from the property sector, with recovery only really beginning to emerge in 2013.

However, the past 18 months have been unstintingly positive, and this latest INE data is the best in a long while.

According to the official figures, the 44,782 home sales registered in May this year is the single-highest monthly figure since September 2008, and is a massive 22.9% increase on May last year.

And this is no mere isolated month. The first five months of this year combined have seen 191,537 properties bought and sold in Spain – a total that is 11.8% higher than the same period in 2016.

For a longer view, the INE data also reveals that, for the 12 months up to the end of May 2017, home sale transactions number almost 425,000, which is an encouraging 11.9% annual increase.

As always, there are regional imbalances in transaction volumes, but the data revealed an increase in sales in 16 of Spain’s 17 regions this year compared to last, with particularly strong sales in the Balearics and Castille-La Mancha – both of which saw sales increase by more than 35%.

Recent data, also published by the INE, revealed that May also recorded average property price increases of 5.3% nationwide.