The increase in the cost of financing to purchase a home, as a result of the rate hike applied by the European Central Bank to curb inflation, did not prevent sales from increasing by 6.1% last year to close at maximums in the last fifteen years in the 719,680 operations. The data published this Tuesday by the General Council of Notaries show that this increase occurs with a price increase of 7.2% on average to 1,615 euros per square meter.
Despite the fact that activity and prices recovered in the year as a whole, as the year wore on, the market experienced a “progressive cooling off”, given that operations grew by 10.6% between October and December, when they increased by a 22.8% in the first quarter of the year. The same happened with prices, which went from rising 11% at the beginning of the year to probably stagnating by December.
The prices of flats increased by 3.6% last year compared to the previous year, reaching 1,701 euros per square meter, while the price of single-family homes stood at an average of 1,195 euros per square meter, with an increase of 10.2% over 2021%). Among the increases, the most pronounced, in double digits, were registered by the Canary Islands (+26.9%) and the Valencian Community (+14%), followed by the Balearic Islands (+7.4%) and Asturias and Murcia, both with annual growth of 6.6%.
With regard to housing prices, all communities increased them in 2022, except Castilla-La Mancha, where they fell by an average of 1.6%. The largest price increases, with double-digit increases, were registered in Madrid (+12.2%), Murcia (+11%), the Canary Islands (+10.4%) and the Valencian Community, which in 2022 raised 10, 3% their prices. In absolute values, five regions exceeded the national average price of 1,615 euros per square meter in 2022: the Balearic Islands (3,200 euros per); Madrid (2,657 euros), the Basque Country (2,505), Catalonia (1,980) and the Canary Islands (1,771 euros).
The average amount of loans increases by 3.8%
For their part, mortgage loans for home purchase will increase by 2.8% in 2022, to 355,470 operations. The average amount of these credits increased by 3.8% compared to 2021, standing at 153,357 euros. In addition, in 2022, 106,484 operations were signed with other fines, 5.9% than in 2021, so that the total number of mortgage loans rose to 461,953 last year, 3.5% more than in the previous year, according to the notaries.
By autonomous communities, mortgage loans for home purchase rose in most of them in 2022, especially in the Canary Islands (+12.4%) and the Balearic Islands (+10.3%). On the other hand, they decreased in Murcia (-2.5%) and Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, both with a decrease of 2.1%. The average amount of the loans for the purchase of housing fluctuated in 2022 between 234,521 euros in the Balearic Islands and 94,791 euros in Murcia, according to the data managed by the General Council of Notaries.
