Sales record 13 years

In recent months, more housing was purchased in Spain than before the pandemic. Why?

In the first half of 2021, 267,715 villas and apartments were sold in Spain, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) and the Spanish Property Registry. This is the best result since 2008, when 313,248 transactions were recorded from January to June. Moreover, this figure is 0.6% higher than the “pre-COVID” 2019, when 266,018 purchases were made in the first half of the year.

Real estate experts attribute this to a large number of deferred purchases that did not take place last year due to the population’s fear of the virus, border closures, and other factors.

According to Francisco Iñareta from idealista, this data “officially confirms the market recovery and its return to pre-pandemic reality, since many purchases in 2021 are unrealized purchases from 2020.” Additionally, according to the expert, more than 48,000 real estate properties were sold in Spain in June 2021, which has only been recorded four times since 2008: “This is 73.5% more than last June, when the market was practically paralyzed by fears. Now we observe certain optimism thanks to the success of vaccination, European Union aid, and increased savings among the population over the past year,” explains Francisco Iñareta.

The best half-year in the last 13 years is accompanied by another interesting figure: 55,777 purchases of new construction. This is a 13.5% increase compared to pre-COVID 2019 and the best indicator since 2014 (67,429).