According to many experts, the past 2021 has been the best time for the Spanish property market in many years. These opinions were confirmed in a report prepared by El Colegio de Registradores. All in all, it was a RECORD year!
Record results despite declines – Q4 ’21
The number of properties sold in Spain in the fourth quarter of 2021 recorded a slight decline, following an excellent third quarter performance. Despite a fall of -6.6%, property sales in the October-December period totalled 143,982, the second highest figure since mid-2008.
When looking closely at the results obtained by the individual Autonomies, Andalusia was again the region with the best property sales. Achieving a result of 31,325 transactions (a decrease of 3.4% compared to Q3), it overtook the Autonomies, in turn: Catalonia (22,000), Valencia (21,000) and Madrid (18,500).
The quarterly decline achieved in the last three months of 2021 marks the breaking of an upward streak – which has lasted since the beginning of the pandemic crisis and consisted of five consecutive quarters with increases in the number of property purchases in Spain. Despite the drop of a few per cent, the results at the end of 2021 perfectly illustrate the continuing real interest in property on the Iberian Peninsula from investors from all over the world.
Primary market vs. secondary market in Q4
A drop in the number of purchases was recorded for both new (-3.0%) and ‘second-hand’ properties (-7.5%) – but despite this, both managed to achieve very impressive figures, well above the statistics of previous years. In the case of the secondary market, a total of 115,427 sales were registered, which was the second highest result since the second quarter of 2007. On the other hand, if we look at the performance of the primary market, we see that 28,555 transactions were registered in the last three months of 2021, the second highest result since mid-2014.
In the case of secondary market transactions, fourteen Autonomous Communities recorded quarterly decreases, while increases were only achieved for 3 regions. In the case of the new property market, on the other hand, decreases occurred in eleven autonomous communities, while increases were recorded for the remaining six areas.
Summary 2021
In the whole of 2021, a total of 564,569 property sales transactions were registered in Spain, which, in the final analysis, means that the local property market has achieved its best result in fourteen years! Undoubtedly, these are figures confirming the strength of the Spanish property market, which in the last 12 months has managed to reach a level well above the number of transactions registered before the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Compared to 2020, the annual increase in the number of property transactions carried out in Spain was 34.5%, providing similar increases for both primary (34.0%) and secondary (34.6%) purchases.
In the past year, exactly 452,005 property transactions were registered on the secondary market (the highest year-on-year result since Q3 2007) and 112,564 contracts on the primary market, which translated into the best year-on-year result in eight years!
It is also worth highlighting the fact that all autonomous communities within Spain have achieved double-digit year-on-year growth. Although a few regions – such as Andalusia – are significantly outperforming the country as a whole, the results still indicate the enormous potential of investment property in Spain.
