Spanish Notaries Confirm December Rise in Property Prices

The latest figures released from Spanish notaries confirmed a rise in Spanish property prices in December.

The data from Spanish notaries report a monthly rise of 5.7 per cent in real estate values to 1,469 euros per square metre, representing one of the highest levels in 2018.

It was confirmed by the notaries however, that this is a notoriously hard figure to analyse, since variations in average property price are not necessarily due to any nationwide trend. They could in fact be due to more properties being sold in different regions of the country where property prices are higher or lower, therefore distorting the national average.

The data from Spanish notaries also reported year-on-year increases of 1.2 per cent in real estate sales and 6.2 per cent in mortgage activity in December across the country.

December saw the number of property sales and purchases registered for both Spanish nationals and overseas property investors rise by 1.2 per cent to an annual total of 51,603 units, continuing an upward trend that has been in place since early 2013.

Meanwhile, the notaries figures confirmed that the number of mortgages constituted on property purchases during December was 23,051. This represented a year-on-year rise of 6.2 per cent when compared to December 2017.

The average loan capital size was also up by 6.1 per cent year-on-year to reach an average of 144,356 euros.

From the Spanish notaries data, it can be deduced that 44.7 per cent of all property purchases were financed by mortgage loans during December, continuing a trend whereby the figure has not reached 50 per cent since 2010. Mortgages in these cases accounted for an average of 74.5 per cent of the total property purchase price.

The latest Spanish Notaries figures appear to confirm the impression that the Spanish property market may be beginning to stabilise after a long period of significant growth, though prices and sales figures continue to rise.