The sale and purchase of homes recorded a decline of 19.3% in March compared to the same month in 2023, to a total of 44,878 operations, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), which revealed that this rate has fallen in thirteen of the last fourteen months.
The data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) leave the 5.8% rise recorded in February, with which the statistics broke a 12-month streak of falls, as anecdotal.
In total, 44,878 transactions were carried out in March. The data reflect a fall in new-build transactions of 14%, to 8,917, and of 20.5%, to 35,961 transactions, in those carried out on used homes. These are the largest percentage decreases since September 2023 and the lowest number of transactions for a month of March since 2020.
93% of the homes transferred (41,741) were free, representing a fall of 18.5%, and 7% (3,137), protected, after plunging 28.8% to record its lowest number of sales in a month of March since 2015.
A spokesperson for the sales portal ‘idealista’, has indicated that “the sharp fall shown by the March data has been surprising due to its intensity, although it is consistent with the ever-decreasing supply available on the market”. The expert recalls that, as was seen in 2023, the decreases in the number of transactions were more related to the lack of stock than to the increase in the cost of financing, and that in this case, the bad figure for March is also due to the Easter holiday period falling in that month.
