Home buying and selling drops 3.3% in 2019, the first drop since 2013

The sale of homes in Spain fell 3.3% in 2019 compared to a year earlier, up to 501,085 transactions, according to data released Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

This is the first year-on-year decline on this indicator since 2013, in which sales decreased 1.9%.

Last year, half a million homes and apartments were sold for the second consecutive year, which has not happened since 2008.

Of the total housing transactions in 2019, 81.5% corresponded to second-hand transactions, while 18.5% were newly built.

The records on sales of used homes decreased by 4.2% in 2019 at an annual rate, which has not occurred since 2012 and compared to the increase that was computed in 2018 (10.9%) in this type of buildings.

On the contrary, the sales of new homes increased 1.2% last year (92,844 units) compared to a year earlier, where the increase was much more pronounced, up to 10.2% year-on-year.

The sale of newly built houses did not decline in an annual rate since 2016. That year decreased 2.4%.

In 2018, 517,984 units were sold (16,899 more than in 2019).

Regarding the number of homes transmitted by donation, in 2019 it increased 15.3% compared to 2018, to 18,764 transactions, which is the highest figure since 2012.

In December, the sale of homes increased 1.8% year-on-year, to 34,767 units (81.1% used).