The home purchase market remains immune for the moment to the collateral effects of rising prices and higher credit prices. According to the latest data from the General Council of Notaries, sales rose by 7.8% in August compared to the same period of the previous year and the granting of mortgages also increased significantly, rising by 13%.
In total, 42,841 housing purchase and sale operations were signed in August. Sales of flats increased by 10.1%, while those of single-family homes, which reached historical highs during the height of the pandemic, registered a more moderate growth of 1.8%.
The upward trend in the buying and selling market also translated into an increase in prices, as they rose by 3.1% year-on-year, to 1,475 euros per square metre. In this sense, single-family homes became more expensive than flats, 5.9% compared to 0.5%, respectively.
The rise in house prices was practically generalized throughout Spain, although there are four autonomous communities that recorded decreases: La Rioja (-8.9%); Balearic Islands (-8.1%); Cantabria (-2.8%) and Navarra (-2.1%). On the opposite side are the Basque Country (34%) with double-digit increases; Extremadura (21.9%); Aragon (21.4%); Castile-La Mancha (12.7%); Galicia (10.7%) and the Valencian Community (10.3%).
Likewise, mortgage loans for house purchase grew by 13% compared to the same period of the previous year, up to 23,438 operations. The average amount of these loans also rose slightly -0.4%. As is the trend, the majority of purchases -54.7%- required mortgage financing.
Despite the fact that the real estate sector continues to post positive figures, experts predict a slowdown in transactions and prices as a result of the tightening of monetary policy and the rise in interest rates. In this sense, the Euribor recorded its greatest historical rise in September: it increased almost one point and closed at 2.2% from 1.2% in August. For this reason, the European Central Bank (ECB) estimates that house prices will register a decrease of up to 9% in the next two years.
