MADRID, 20 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The sale and purchase of homes registered a decrease of 10.5% in July compared to the same month last year, to a total of 48,303 operations, its lowest figure in this month since 2020, in a context of higher interest rates for contain inflation, as reported this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
This year-on-year decline, the most pronounced since January of this year, increases by more than four points that registered in June (-6.4%) and represents the sixth consecutive year-on-year decline in home sales.
The decrease in home sales in July has been due to the drop in both second-hand apartment transactions and new home transactions.
Specifically, the sale and purchase of used homes fell by 11.2% in the seventh month of the year, its biggest decline since January, to total 40,036 transactions, while transactions carried out on new apartments decreased by 7.4%, to 8,267 operations.
92.7% of the homes transferred by sale in July were free homes and 7.3% were protected. In total, the purchase and sale of free homes fell by 10% year-on-year, to 44,766 transactions, while the purchase and sale of subsidized homes fell by 16.5%, to a total of 3,537 transactions.
On a month-on-month basis (July over June), home sales contracted 10.5%, its biggest drop in a month of July in at least five years.
According to the INE, two out of every three home sales carried out in April (68.4%) were carried out between natural persons. In total, 33,068 operations of this type were carried out between natural persons in July, 12.4% less than in the same month of 2022.
In the first seven months of the year, the sale and purchase of homes has been reduced by 5.3%, after operations on new homes fell by 1.2% and those on used homes fell by 6.2%.
PURCHASES DOWN IN 14 COMMUNITIES
Last July, the highest number of home sales per 100,000 inhabitants occurred in the Valencian Community (189), Murcia (149) and Andalusia (144).
In absolute values, Andalusia was the region that carried out the most housing transactions during the seventh month of the year, with 9,891 sales, followed by the Valencian Community (7,973), Catalonia (7,726) and Madrid (5,431).
Fourteen communities sold fewer homes in July 2023 than in the same month of 2022. The sharpest declines occurred in Galicia (-22.8%), the Canary Islands (-18.2%), Navarra (-17.2%) and Madrid (-16.6%), while the most moderate were for the Basque Country (-2.5%) and Cantabria (-3.4%).
On the other hand, home sales rose in July at an interannual rate in three regions: Extremadura, where they increased by 5.2%; Asturias (3.8%) and Murcia (0.2%).
THE TOTAL PROPERTIES TRANSFERRED FALL BY 4.7%
The properties transferred in the property registries, from public deeds carried out previously, reached 170,109 last July, 4.7% less than in the same month of the previous year.
By purchase and sale, 8.7% fewer properties were transferred than a year before, while those transferred by donation fell by 5.4% annually; those transmitted by inheritance increased by 3.5%, and exchange operations soared by 22.1%.
87.8% of July sales corresponded to urban properties, which include homes, and 12.2% to rural properties. Sales of urban properties decreased by 9.1% year-on-year, while those of rural properties decreased by 6% compared to July 2022, totaling 81,005 and 11,257 transactions, respectively.
