Spanish property sales increase by 19% in June

In further news that the Spanish property market is thriving, home sales increased by 19% in June of this year, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

A total of 39,625 property sales were inscribed in the Land Registry in June, up by 19% on the same month last year. Monthly home sales have now risen on an annualised basis almost every month since March 2014, when the Spanish housing market began to recover after six years in recession.

Both new and resale home transactions saw an increase of 20% in June, marking the first time sales transactions for new developments and properties has risen since August 2010, when the increase was due to banks repossessing new homes from developers, not real sales to new buyers. New home sales are expected to grow at a steady rate over the next few years as developers invest in new developments and off-plan sales lead to completions in the near future that will start to show up in official government figures.

The Costa del Sol on the southern tip of Spain has seen an annual growth of 12% in property sales. According to Spain's College of Property Registrars, last year 33.92% of properties sold in the Malaga province were purchased by foreigners, a large amount of which were British buyers, despite the uncertainties caused by Brexit. Sales made to UK nationals is now down to 28% in the first quarter of 2017, but British buyers still remain in pole position while other nationalities have more than made up for the slightly weakening demand. The Costa del Sol property market is now frequented by Danish, a rising number of Norwegian, Dutch, American, Russian, Finnish and Irish buyers.