Property sales increased 5.9% in December
December 2016 saw a little over 60,000 property sales in Spain, an annual increase of 5.9%.
83.6% of purchases registered in December correspond to urban properties, and 16.4% to rustic. In the case of urban property sales, 57.3% were residential property. The number of sales of rural properties increased by 7.4%, year-on-year, while the number of urban property sales increased by 5.6%. Within the latter, housing sales increased by 6.8%.
Autonomous Communities
In December, the number of property transfers in the property records, per 100,000 inhabitants, reached its highest value in Aragon (523), followed by La Rioja (498), and Castilla y Leon (492).
The largest increases were seen in the Canary Islands (+13.4%), the Balearic Islands (+12.7%), and Communidad Foral de Navarra (+5.1%).
At the other end of the scale, we see the largest declines were seen in La Rioja (-14.5%), Murcia (-9.1%), and Castilla y Leon (-7.8%).
In Andalucía, the number of sales of all types of property, per 100,000 inhabitants was 312, no change from the previous December.
When looking only at the sale of housing, the highest number of sales per 100,000 inhabitants was seen in the Balearic Islands (129), followed by Valencia (103) and La Rioja (93). In Andalucía, the number of homes sold per 100,000 inhabitants was 86, a 2% annual increase.
The highest rates of change were seen in La Rioja (22.6%), Extremadura (21.3%), and the Balearic Islands (20.2%).
The region of Murcia saw a fall of 13.8%, while sales of residential property declined by 9.1% in Asturias.
2016 Results
There was a total of 826,562 property sales in 2016, an increase of 9.3% compared to 2015, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute.
84.9% of purchases registered in 2016 correspond to urban properties, and 15.1% to rustic. In the case of urban properties, 57.6% were housing.
Purchases of urban property increased by 11.4% over the course of the year. Housing sales increased by 13.6% annually.
Of the total residential properties sold, 18.7% were new property while the remaining 81.3% were used properties. The number of new property sales decreased by 1.7%, while the number of resale property sales increased by 17.8%, year-on-year.
2016 by Autonomous Community
The number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants reached its highest level in the Balearic Islands with 1,521, followed by Valencia (1,478), and the Canary Islands (1,196). In Andalucía, the number was 1,194, an increase of 11.3%.
The number of house sales increased in all communities. The Balearic Islands saw the largest increase with 31% more properties sold. Catalonia followed with an increase of 20%, while Extremadura saw an increase of 18.6%.
The lowest increases were seen in La Rioja (5.7%), Murcia (7.5%) and Galicia (7.7%).
