Home sales fall 2% in the first quarter and the price rises almost 5%

The purchase and sale of homes during the first quarter of the year stood at 161,024 operations, which represents an increase of 7.2% over the previous quarter, but a decrease of 2% over the same period of the previous year, according to the registry statistics of the College of Registrars.

In new housing (new build), 30,466 sales were registered, with an increase of 17.8% over the previous quarter; while used housing registered 130,558 operations, representing a quarterly increase of 5.1%.

Regarding the type of property, the sale of housing has been broken down into 80.6% collective housing (flats) and 19.4% single-family housing, which returns to levels below 20%.

The all-time highs for the weight of single-family homes were recorded at the end of 2020, with 22.5%, and although it had been approaching those levels in recent quarters, there was a slight decline at the beginning of 2023.

If we look at the March data, Registrars point to a decline in both sales and mortgages. During the month of March, home sales fell by 3.9% per year and mortgages, more sharply, down to 14.7% per year. Some numbers that are in line with those recently published by notaries, which also showed falls in both sales and financing operations.

The balance of the last 12 months is settled with 642,966 home sales, the second highest figure since mid-2008, far exceeding the results prior to the pandemic, which showed just over 520,000 registered sales.

Year-on-year rise in prices

Regarding the evolution of prices, the statistics of the registrars show that the average price fell by 1.5% in the first quarter compared to the previous period, up to 1,921 euros per square meter, mainly due to lower housing prices. used (-1.9%), but also to the fall in new housing, whose prices decreased by 0.9%.

On the other hand, compared to the same period of the previous year, the 1,947 euros per square meter represent a year-on-year increase of 4.9%, caused by the greater strength of used housing (+5.4%), while new housing registers a more moderate increase of 3.8%.

By Autonomous Community, the highest average prices were located in the first quarter in Madrid (3,221 euros per square meter), followed by the Balearic Islands (3,027 euros), the Basque Country (2,990 euros) and Catalonia (2,375 euros).

In the opposite direction, the lowest prices were registered in Castilla-La Mancha (850 euros per square meter) and Extremadura (743 euros), the only communities below 1,000 euros per square meter.

Lower foreign demand

According to the statistics of the registrars, the foreign demand for housing has reached 14.5% of the sales, decreasing 0.2 percentage points with respect to the previous quarter, which is the fourth highest result in the historical series.

In percentage terms, it is the second consecutive quarter with decreases compared to the all-time high of the third quarter of 2022 (15.9%), but it continues to far exceed the usual percentage since 2014, which was above 12%.

Among foreigners, the British once again lead the results, with 9.5% of purchases, followed by Germans (7.5%) and French (7.2%).

The results of foreign purchases by autonomous communities have been led by the Balearic Islands (29.2%), the Valencian Community (28.4%), the Canary Islands (28.3%), Murcia (21.4%), Catalonia (15, 6%) and Andalusia (14.6%).