The sale of homes grows 15.5% in March with more than 70,000 operations

The number of home sales increased by 15.5% in the interannual rate during the month of March, reaching 70,812. Despite the dynamism of the market, there are already two autonomous communities where operations fell this month.

With this level of operations (70,812) the best March since 2007 has closed, when more than 91,858 were signed. It must be remembered that the Spanish housing market has been very active for a few months and that this barrier of 70,000 purchases was already surpassed last December (then 72,659 were registered). Since the boom years, this line has only been exceeded at specific times and due to regulatory changes, as occurred in December 2012 before the deduction for the purchase of a primary residence ceased to be effective.

This March, by type of home, the sale of flats increased by 17.8% year-on-year, to 54,434 units, while the sale of single-family homes increased by 8.5% year-on-year, to reach 16,377 units, according to data of the General Council of Notaries.

In addition, the average price per square meter stood at 1,583 euros, 9.2% more than in March 2021.

The prices of flats rose by 5.7% compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 1,745 euros per square meter, while the price of single-family homes stood at an average of 1,297 euros per square meter, with an increase of 15.8%.

By Autonomous Community, the sale of homes grew in all of them, except in Navarra and the Basque Country, where it fell by 11.8% and 7.3% year-on-year, respectively.

In contrast, the greatest advances were recorded by the Canary Islands (44.8%), Cantabria (29.1%), Andalusia (23%), Castilla-La Mancha (21.7%), the Balearic Islands (21.3%) and the Community Valencian (21.2%).

For its part, the price per square meter rose by 9.2% year-on-year at the national level. In 14 autonomies there was an increase in the price of housing and in the remaining four it decreased.

By order of magnitude, double-digit increases were recorded in the Balearic Islands (24.4%), Navarra (17.2%), Madrid (16.6%), Galicia (15.6%), the Valencian Community (14.3% ), Castilla y León (14.2%), Andalucía (13.6%), Cantabria (12.5%), Canarias (12.2%) and Murcia (11.6%).

On the other hand, house prices registered decreases in Extremadura (-1.2%), La Rioja and the Basque Country (-0.9%) and Castilla-La Mancha (-0.7%).

In March, mortgage loans for house purchase grew by 8.9% year-on-year at the national level, to 36,240 operations.

The average amount of these credits increased by 1.8% year-on-year, reaching 147,722 euros on average.

The percentage of home purchases financed by means of a mortgage loan stood at 51.2%. In addition, in this type of purchase with financing, the amount of the loan represented an average of 73.7% of the price.

At the regional level, mortgage loans for home purchase grew in 13 autonomous communities, especially in Cantabria (38%), Canarias (18.3%) and La Rioja (16.8%), and fell in the Basque Country (- 9.5%), Navarra (-6%), Murcia (-2.4%) and Castilla y León (-0.8%).