Spanish property transactions on the up

During the month of April the number of property transfers across Spain rose by 2.5% y-o-y and 19.3% on March’s recorded figures pushing the total number of transfers up to 214,795, according to figures released by the Spanish National Statistics Office (NSI).
Of the nearly 215,000 transfers in April, 120,971 were for properties sold, 6,675 were donated, 2,751 were swapped, 32,901 were inherited and 51,497 were listed as ‘other titles’.
Some 88% of all property sold in Spain across April was classified as urban and 12% rustic. Sales of urban property rose for the first time in several months by 18.3% on March’s figures, but still recorded a decline, although slowing, of 5.8% y-o-y.
The gap between resale and new build purchases is as close as it has been since the start of 2007, with 27,484 transfers for new build and 28,318 for used. The sale of new build property rose 22% m-o-m and 12.3% y-o-y. Transactions for used housing also rose 20.3% in March, however still recorded a decline of 20.4% on the number recorded the same time last year.
In April 2008, the total number of transfers of property per 100,000 inhabitants was highest in the Communities of Castilla-La Mancha (956) and La Rioja (857). The Communities showing the highest number of sales per 100,000 inhabitants was the Región de Murcia (478) and Castilla-La Mancha (460). In April 2008, 70.4% of dwelling transactions were recorded in four Autonomous Communities: Andalucía, Comunitat Valenciana, Comunidad de Madrid and Cataluña.