More Than 100,000 Andalucian Property Sales To Have Been Made In 2019

Andalucian property sales

Another record-breaking year predicted

As we trundle into the last seven weeks of 2019, analysts and statistics agencies in Spain are preparing their fourth quarter and year-as-a-whole predictions for property purchases in relation to each Autonomous Community as well as nationally. The results of one such study forecasts Andalucian property sales in 2019 to top 100,000 for the second consecutive year.

According to data published last month by the College of Registrars¹ (Registradores de España), the governmental organisation responsible for ensuring the legality of Spanish property and the running of the notary service, the region of Andalucía could register as many as 102,583 residential property transactions by the end of 2019, if the current buying rhythm is maintained.

As a percentage of national real estate acquisition, Andalucian property sales are set to represent a share of approximately 20%: a figure it has been consistent for the last few years and which underlines the importance of the region in the context of the overall Spanish housing market.

Other significant market indicators

The College of Registrars’ “Panorama registral. Evolución inmobiliaria y mercantil de Sevilla / Andalucía / España” report has tracked the region’s real estate activity since 2010 – taking into account factors such as quantity of transactions, the percentage split between the acquisition of new build and second hand properties, mortgage approvals and other business activity – as well as (curiously) shining a light on the province of Sevilla, too.

The increasing proportion of new build properties being bought in Andalucía is an interesting statistic highlighted by the study. Last year, the new residential development market accounted for 15.73% of total sales in the region.

This year, new build properties made up almost 2% more of the total sales activity (17.08%), meaning the many projects under construction at the moment are indeed enticing buyers away from resale properties and towards the mouth-watering prospect of first occupancy in a brand-new residential community or detached property.

Even better than last year

2018 might seem like a distant past at this point, but it was (almost exactly) one year ago that I wrote about how half a million properties would be sold in Spain by the end of the year. And, when the dust settled and exact data was compiled to quantify the record-breaking year for sales, I commented on the following successes for the real estate sector (in March and April respectively):

• Foreign home buyers in Spain smash post-crisis property sales record

• Spanish Property Sales and Homeownership Figures in 2018

The thing about last year’s sales record is that it blew 2017 figures out of the water. There was a real injection of activity and, according to the College of Registrars’ study, well over 50,000 more homes were bought nationally from one year to the next.

The same report predicts a growth in the total number of properties sold in Spain in the 12 months to 31^st December 2019, however the rise will not be as sharp as the previous year. In fact, it calculates nationwide property sales to be almost 3,000 more than last year (less than 1%), increasing from 516,680 to 519,664.

A visual aid

As you can see from the graph above², the annual percentage variation for Andalucian property sales (the purple line) very much mirrors the curve for Spain as a whole (the red line). 

This means the performance of the real estate market in Andalucía, buoyed by the strong allure of the Costa del Sol as a relocation or holiday home destination and tempered by outlying towns and villages seeing limited real estate activity, continues to be a reliable indicator of the fluctuations in property purchasing in Spain at large.

The graphic also clearly shows consistent year-on-year sales volume percentage increases going back to 2015 and the relative slow-down from 2018 to 2019 – despite the latter still registering a positive interannual figure.

Although the outlook is very good for 2020, only time will tell as to whether another annual sales volume increase will be on the cards this time next year.

I hope you enjoyed this post about Andalucian property sales and that it's helped you get your head around the local property market! Keep your eyes peeled for more property market news from Andalucía, the province of Málaga and the Costa del Sol coming soon in the VIVA Blog... and I'd love to hear from you, as always, in the comments below!

Sources:

¹ http://www.registradores.org/wp-content/estadisticas/mercantil/monografias/2019_PR_Evoluci%c3%b3n_inmobiliaria_y_mercantil_SEVILLA_2010-2019.pdf

² Graphic courtesy of Registradores de España: http://www.registradores.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1.jpg