Last year Asturias was the fourth autonomous community in which home sales increased the most and the only one in which this trend persisted in December. This occurred in a year in which Spain established a new consecutive record for the number of operations since 2007, at the end of the great real estate “bubble”. However, the rise in interest rates from July by decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) progressively moderated growth and in December there was a sudden stop, with a decline of 14.2% compared to the same month of 2021, from which only Asturias escaped, where sales still grew 5.1%.
In the whole year, sales grew by 14.7% in Spain and 20.6% in the Principality. Asturias was only surpassed by Catalonia (31.6%), the Balearic Islands (25.6%) and the Valencian Community (20.6%). Navarra was the only region in which they decreased (-0.5%).
In 2022 there were 659,494 housing transactions in Spain, of which only 18% were new, which is attributed to an effect of the rise in the cost of materials. Used housing not only accounted for 82% of the operations but also led an increase (17.7%) much higher than that of the new one (2.6%).
In Asturias there were 11,339 transactions, 1.74% of the Spanish total. The weight of new housing was also slightly higher than the national average (represented 18.43% of operations) and used housing accounted for 81.55%. In total, 2,092 newly built homes and 9,247 second-hand homes changed hands in Asturias.
The global data for the year were considered very outstanding by analysts in the sector, and even more so taking into account very adverse phenomena, such as inflation, the aggressive rise in interest rates and the darkening of expectations due to the war in Ukraine and the ominous warnings that the Spanish economy was doomed to fall into a recession in the final stretch of 2022. In the end, the economy grew 5.5% in the year in the interannual rate and 2.7% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Even so, the compendium of factors against it converged so that in December there was the first drop in sales in Spain in 21 months. In December there were 43,370 operations in the country, 21.3% less than in November, and 10.2% below December 2021. The decreases were widespread in December in all regions, except in Asturias, where they materialized 824 contracts, 5.1% more than in the last month of the previous year. The greatest decreases were verified in La Rioja (-19.5%), Madrid (-16.9%) and Andalusia (-14.1%).
Public debt
Spain closed 2022 with a public debt above 1.5 trillion euros, according to the Bank of Spain, which is equivalent to 113.1% of gross domestic product (GDP). The debt, which ran amok especially from 2020 due to health spending programs and protection measures for companies and workers as a result of the covid, and later due to aid and compensation for the rise in inflation and the high cost of energy, marks a milestone only surpassed by the November debt rate. However, it fell short of the Government’s forecast in the State Budget (115.2%), largely due to GDP growth despite the difficult international context. In 2022 the debt grew by 75,267 million (5.3%) compared to 2021. But in December it fell 0.2% compared to November.