Catalan housing market up 15% in 2017

It was a “great year” for the housing market in Catalonia, and Spain as a whole, according to the annual report for 2017 from Spain’s property registration authority. Some 77,830 homes were bought and sold in Catalonia in 2017, a 15.9% rise over the previous year. It is the highest number of sales in the past nine years, says the report.

The 15.9% rise in Catalonia is a percentage point higher than the 14.9% average increase for Spain as whole, where 464,223 total house sales were registered. In percentage terms, Catalonia was the fifth autonomous community with the highest increase in sales, behind Castile-La Mancha, Asturias, Madrid and Cantabria. Yet, the 77,830 figure means that Catalonia was behind only Andalucia in terms of total sales. 

Biggest rise in new home sales

The number of new homes sold went up particularly in Catalonia in 2017, with 10,193 sales accounting for a 21.4% increase over the previous year. Nevertheless, used housing sales remain the driving force of the market recovery, with second-hand home sales amounting to 67,637 transactions, an increase of 15.1% compared to 2016.

The vast majority of sales in 2017 in Catalonia were in the Barcelona area, where 53,773 homes were bought and sold, which was a 15.8% rise over 2016. The Barcelona area also experienced a 20.3% rise in the number of new homes sold compared to the previous year. 

Meanwhile, the 10,353 homes sold in the Girona area represented a 15% increase over 2016, with the sale of new homes going up 31%. In the Lleida area, the 3,407 sales registered was a rise of 10.7%, while the 10,297 sales in the Tarragona area was an increase of 19.2% compared with 2016.

House price index up 7.6%

As for house prices, the registration authority report shows a 1.83% rise in house prices in Spain in the final quarter of 2017, maintaining the upward trend in prices noted in recent years. As for the whole of last year, house prices in Spain went up by 7.6%. However, this figure is still 21% below the maximum figures for house prices reached during the property bubble in 2007.