As the title says, property completions as reported by the Instituto Nacional de EstadÃstica (INE) reached almost 650.0000 operations (649,494 to be exact), a level not seen in 15 years. But and this is a big BUT, there was a major slowdown in December, which is to be expected however it's clear that interest rate rises and inflation worries have cooled the market. Since July last year, the ECB have stared increasing rates to 3% which has seen higher mortgage costs.
So we have seen a drop off in December to 43.370 operations, a number which in itself is not bad - it's the month with the least activity since both February and April 2021 when property closings more or less ground to a halt due to covid.
These numbers are covering the whole of Spain. In the Valencia region, and over the course of 2022, the number of operations closed is up 23.9% which along with the islands (Balearic and Canary) are the areas with the greatest growth year on year. The increase in Spain was 14.7%
Also on the increase is the number of companies which are buying property, these types being considered as investors as opposed to individuals buying to live (or to let).
The full article from El Pais can be read here:- https://elpais.com/economia/2023-02-17/la-venta-de-viviendas-llega-a-650000-casas-en-2022-lo-nunca-visto-en-15-anos-pero-se-frena-en-diciembre.html
