Spanish house sales declined further in July, continuing a downward trend with an interannual rate of 10.5 percent. The month recorded 48,303 operations, marking the lowest figure since 2020 and reflecting higher financing costs driven by rising interest rates.
There was a 10.5 percent drop in sales from June, and year to date transactions are down 5.3 percent, according to INE data.
Second-hand homes remain the most common type, making up nearly 83 percent of total activity. They fell by 11.2 percent year over year, while new constructions decreased by 7.4 percent.
Healthy market
Even with these results, real estate prices continued to rise and property portals described the market as being in a healthy environment.
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Idealista spokesman Francisco Iñareta noted that the data show a significant decline versus 2022, a record year, suggesting July data point to normalization rather than a disaster scenario. He cautioned against reading too much into a negative spike.
Fotocasa Research Director María Matos highlighted new housing data showing an annual drop for the first time this July. Still, she stressed that new construction continues to boom since the start of the pandemic and expects the year to close with roughly 500,000 sales.
When will prices ease?
Pisos.com Research Director Ferran Font noted that the data reaffirm ongoing cooling trends for 2023, though the pace of change remains uncertain. Time will tell when slower activity will be clearly reflected in prices.
Economics reporter Sandra López Letón discussed the current buying climate on the episode Why this might be a difficult time to buy a home from the podcast Today in El País: the market logic suggests prices should stop rising and may dip slightly. With mortgage costs high, both fixed and variable, she advised buyers to wait a bit. Letón added that looking toward the end of this year and into 2024, prices could begin to rise again, though not aggressively and not across all segments.