In Catalonia, home sales decrease in March for the first time in 2026

BarcelonaCatalonia breaks the streak of monthly growth in home purchases, which had already lasted six months. According to the latest data on property rights transfers, published this Monday by the National Statistics Institute, sales have fallen by 3.5% in March compared to the same period last year. The decline in the third month of the year reverses the trend that had been maintained since the beginning of the year, with growth of 1.4% in January and more than 5.7% in February.

According to INE data, 10,005 homes were acquired in Catalonia to close the first quarter, about 300 fewer than a year earlier. It should be noted that this figure is the second highest in the entire State, only surpassed by Andalusia and above Madrid and the Valencian Country. The market cooled in all segments: Catalans acquired about 1,971 new homes, down from 2,011 a year ago; and about 8,000 used homes, compared to 8,352 in 2025.

The only segment that has grown is protected housing, which is residual when compared to the free market: according to the Spanish statistical institute, 532 operations were completed to acquire regulated housing, about 100 more than the previous year. Unregulated properties, on the other hand, fell by more than 400 acquisitions, to 9,473.

Three months of decline in the State

With the March losses, Catalonia joins the Spanish trend. In fact, transactions are falling more than in the State as a whole, which loses 2.2%, to 61,295. In the Spanish territory as a whole, however, the start of the year was not as auspicious as in the Principality, and it already chains a full quarter of real estate slowdown.

Unlike the Catalan market, however, used housing in the State as a whole does show a slight activation, of 0.2% year-on-year, to 48,238 transactions. Despite the stagnation at the start of the course, the market started from very high levels. In fact, the figure for used housing purchases in March is the highest for this month recorded since the start of the historical series, in 2007, before the real estate bubble burst.

For their part, new home purchases are falling sharply in the State as a whole. Transactions on new construction properties have fallen by 10.2% compared to the previous year, and are just over 13,000 purchases.

More demand, fewer sales

The real estate sector does not consider the drop in sales as proof of cooling demand. According to real estate personal shopper Iñaki Unsain, the declines at the beginning of the year, to which Catalonia has been added, consolidate a "phase of adjustment marked by a structural problem of lack of supply". "The market still has very solid demand, but there is less and less housing available to sustain the volume of transactions we saw in 2024 and part of 2025," considers the expert. The assessment is in line with the disparity of figures for new and used housing throughout the State, with a sharp cut in new construction operations that does not fit with sustained purchases of used properties. In Catalonia, however, the separation between the two markets is not so clear.

Unsain also points out the low percentage of total sales corresponding to the regulated market. "Protected housing is still residual, and this makes access to the sector even more difficult," considers the expert. The gap in Spanish public housing, acknowledged by Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo during his recent visit to the Círculo Financiero sessions, is at the origin of "the rise in prices despite the moderation of operations", according to the personal shopper

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