The rise in interest rates and the increase in the cost of credit to access a home are making a dent in the Spanish property market. Home sales fell 6.4% in May in year-on-year terms, registering its fourth consecutive month of decline. In total, 56,137 transactions were closed, according to the data made public this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). This annual decrease is somewhat less pronounced than the one registered in April, when the fall was 8.1% in relation to the previous year.
The slowdown was especially noticeable in the case of used housing, since operations registered a decline of 8.6%, with a total of 45,479, while new housing transactions increased by 4.1%, reaching 10,658. operations. It is true that the comparison is being made at all times with a year 2022 in which sales marked maximums of the last fifteen years in Spain.
In May, 92.5% of the homes sold were free, while 7.5% were subsidized homes. Regarding free housing, there was a year-on-year decrease of 5.8%, with a total of 51,939 operations, while the purchase and sale of subsidized housing fell by 13.4%, reaching 4,198 operations.
The positive part is that in monthly terms (May compared to April), the sale of homes experienced a significant increase of 29.6%, being the highest rise for a month of May since 2017. So far this year, the sale of new homes accumulate a fall of 2.4%, which rises to 4.5% in the case of used. The number of home purchases made between individuals in May was 38,536, which is 7% less than in the same month a year ago.
La Rioja, Madrid and the Canary Islands registered the greatest falls
By autonomous communities, in May there were year-on-year falls in twelve of them, with the greatest decreases being those of La Rioja (-37%); Madrid (-20.5%); Canary Islands (-19.2%); Balearic Islands (-17.1%); Basque Country (-18.5%) or Galicia (-10.7%). For their part, housing transactions grew in five communities, with Cantabria (21.1%), Asturias (8.6%) and Castilla y León (7.9%), leading the increases.
In May, 200,906 farms were registered in the property records, 5.4% less than in the same month of the previous year, but 26.4% more than in April. The greatest decreases corresponded to donations, which fell by 10.3% to 4,596 operations. Next came sales, which totaled 109,714, 7% less.
Other operations (land concentrations, horizontal divisions, daciones en pago, foreclosures or judicial adjudications, among others) totaled 38,748 in May, 9.6% less. On the contrary, swap operations increased 19% to 677 and inheritances 2.8% to 47,171.
