X-ray of the purchase and sale of housing in the Region: apartments in front of houses and paid without a mortgage

2023-10-19 06:21:22

MURCIA. The shortage of housing in the Region, according to some reports, nearly 27,000 homes would be needed, means that the buyer does not have much decision-making power when choosing the type of home. The increase in price causes this situation to become more accentuated. However, based on the data emerging from the latest report of the General Council of Notaries, the citizens of the Region are opting for a certain type of housing. YesThey tend to prefer apartments to single-family homes, and, although it may be surprising, they do not pay for it financed by a mortgage. To cite an example, in the last month reflected, August 2023, of the 1,319 purchase and sale operations carried out, 866 were for apartments while 453 were for single-family properties.

All this in a difficult scenario for the real estate sector. The mortgage signing in the Region deflated again in August 2023 compared to the same period last year, 34%, as reflected the General Council of Notaries. A fact that reflects the difficulties that citizens currently have in accessing financing. Furthermore, all this at a time when the sale and purchase of homes fell again, by 14%, compared to August 2022. In addition, of the signings made last August, only 36% of the properties have been financed through a mortgage loan. Mortgages, however, continue to finance around 72% of total housing.

In Spain as a whole, the situation does not improve. The number of sales and purchases decreased by 17.3% year-on-year in August, reaching 35,278 units and the average price per square meter stood at €1,526/m², registering an increase of 1.8%. By type of housing, apartment sales decreased by 16.9% year-on-year, reaching 26,103 units, while single-family homes decreased by 18.2% to reach 9,175 units. Apartment prices increased by 0.1%, reaching €1,679/m², while the price of single-family homes averaged €1,273/m², registering an increase of 4.9%.

The purchase and sale of housing decreased in all the autonomous communities, recording the best performance in Asturias, with a drop of 0.6% year-on-year. The Autonomous Communities where a better performance than the national average (-17.3%) was recorded were: Cantabria (-8.9%), Castilla y León (-10.5%), Castilla-La Mancha (- 10.8%), Galicia (-13.4%), Valencian Community (-14.7%), Murcia (-14.8%), Extremadura (-16.0%) and Aragón (-16.1% ). The largest decreases were recorded in the remaining Autonomous Communities: Canary Islands (-29.2%), Navarra (-28.1%), the Basque Country (-25.6%), Catalonia (-21.0%) , Balearic Islands (-20.9%), Andalusia (-18.6%), Madrid (-18.4%) and La Rioja (-17.5%).