Home sales resume their record-breaking trajectory in September

BarcelonaThe dynamic housing market, which is registering its best year in terms of the number of transactions, broke a new record in September, its highest level in 18 years.

The market situation across Spain is the same: sales reached their highest figure for September, with a total of 63,794 transactions, 3.8% more than in September of last year, according to data published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). While the September figure is the second highest in Spain this year, Catalonia has registered higher figures on five occasions. In July, for example, a total of 10,729 home sales were recorded.

At a record pace

This September rebound, which has propelled the market back to record levels, comes after a decline in August: it was the first time in 14 months that the number of home sales had fallen. In both Catalonia and Spain as a whole, sales fell by 0.6% and 3.4% year-on-year in August, respectively, a level not seen since June 2014. All of this has led to prices continue to skyrocket.

The slowdown seen in the summer is typical, as it's a holiday month and the number of transactions tends to decrease. However, this wasn't the case with the other major indicator published by the INE (National Institute of Statistics) to gauge market sentiment: mortgage signings in August not only didn't decline, but marked their 15th consecutive month of growth, registering the highest increase for an August since 2010.

The expectation is that the market will not slow down.

This situation in the home sales market is being driven by the expansionary economic cycle fueled by the interest rate reduction policy initiated in September 2013 by the European Central Bank (ECB). Over the past two years, the monetary institution has reduced the cost of money—up to eight times—to the current 2%, which has made mortgages cheaper. Now, after two consecutive meetings in which it has maintained interest rates, the home sales market is expected to slow down. However, although mortgage costs are expected to rise, the strong demand for home purchases, which is not as dependent on the price of loans, is expected to remain strong. continue to drive the market upwards.

As is typical, the vast majority of home sales were for previously owned apartments and houses, representing 80.6% of the total. The remaining 1,842 homes were new builds. In terms of property classification, all but 533 were on the open market, the majority of which were located in the Barcelona area.