House sales in Catalonia increased by 4% in December, just before the end of tax benefits

Madrid (ACN).- The number of housing units sold in Catalonia in December grew by 4% compared to the same time the previous year, according to data from the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) released on Monday morning. The main reason is that, in January, the Spanish Government’s tax benefits applied when purchasing a house, which were approved to reactivate this economic sector after the collapse of the real estate market, will no longer exist. Therefore, many buyers decided to profit from the last month of tax benefits and purchased a flat or a house. Out of the 2,885 houses and apartments sold in Catalonia in December, 66.6% of them were second hand (1,921 units), while the other 33.4% (964 units) were newly built.

For the whole of Spain, housing sales increased by 2.3% in December, reaching a total of 23,523 transactions. In 2012, house sales in Spain dropped by 11.3%, compared to the total figures for 2011. This means that house sales have dropped in Spain for the last two consecutive years. However, 2010 is the only year since the crisis began that housing sales have increased in Spain, when they grew by 6.8%. 2008 and 2009 were the worst years, when the purchase of houses and apartments plummeted to 24.9% and 28.6% respectively.