Land registry data points to 19% increase in Spanish property sales in space of one year

January’s sales figures show a national increase of 19% compared to last year.

Among the recent and sustained signs that the Spanish property market has well and truly picked up comes news from the country’s Land Registry that adds further weight to the narrative…

There are a number of ways of measuring the health of Spain’s real estate sector – including notary data, mortgage data, national statistics institute (INE) data and trends seen on leading search platforms – and the land registry is perhaps one of the most accurate of them all.

In January this year, property sales recorded on the registry showed a 19% increase on the same month in 2016 and the highest for January since 2008, believes Mark Stücklin, leading Spanish property expert.

“In 2013 and 2011 sales figures were inflated by government tinkering in the market,” Stücklin said, referring to tax incentives employed during those leaner years for Spanish property.

The expert is confident that 2017 is the best start to a year for property sales since the end of the boom period, and demand appears to be strong across a broad section of the country, with no single area or region dominating.

According to the land registry data, the biggest increase in transactions in January was in the Balearics, which recorded a 40% rise, followed by Barcelona on 36%, the Costa Dorada on 35% and the Costa Brava on 28%.

Sales of property on the Costa del Sol increased a healthy 20% in January this year compared to last year, which is above the national average and a sign that solidity is expected across 2017 despite concerns over the impact of Brexit negotiations on British buyers.

In terms of property type, resales were 21% stronger than in 2016, with new home sales some 8% stronger. “It is a relief to see the Spanish home sales recovery continue in 2017 and the increase in Málaga and Alicante suggests that buyers from other nationalities are stepping in,” Stücklin added.

Brits still accounted for the largest single nationality of foreign buyers in January, comprising 11%, followed by buyers from the Middle East (8%) and Scandinavia (7%).