The poster of sells itself it goes off the hook faster now than before the pandemic broke out. The purchase plans that many potential buyers had postponed due to the instability and uncertainty generated by the COVID crisis have resumed and more and more people are packing their bags and preparing to move to settle in a larger home or to emancipate themselves from the family home .
The de-escalation after the state of alarm, the advances in vaccination, the low price of mortgages and the savings achieved in some layers of the population have allowed the recovery of the real estate market with more and more sales, despite rising prices, and in less and less time. At least in Galicia. One out of every five homes for sale in the provincial capitals in the community (21.5%) finds tenant in just one month, three points above the percentage registered in February of the COVID year (18.5%), according to a study published by the marketplace Idealistic real estate. But almost one in three (29.15%) takes a year to sign the purchase.
The characteristics of the area where the property is located, the condition, qualities and extras of the house, the inhabitants of the city and even the time of year in which the property is put up for sale – buyers are more likely to close a sale in the first half of the year (more are sold in March, February, June, April and May, in that order) – these are the determining factors for the sale terms to be shortened or lengthened.
Unlike in Galicia, in the whole of the country the trend over the last year has been the other way around. With the data closed for April, a third of the flats and houses sold had been on the market for less than a month, a percentage that is lower than that recorded before the pandemic (February 2020), when 36% were sold in less than 30 days. Of the rest of the properties that found a buyer last April, 21% were on the market between one and three months, 28% were on the market between a quarter and a year, and the remaining 18% were announced for more than a year before. to find a buyer.
Despite the national drop, in most Spanish capitals (26) the percentage of homes that are sold in less than 30 days has grown. The largest increase occurred in Girona, where they have gone from 17% in February 2020 to 40% today. They are followed by León (which goes from 17% to 33%) and Huelva (from 22% to 35%). With differences of more than 10 percentage points, there are Córdoba (from 16% to 28%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (from 22% to 33%) and Lugo (from 7% to 17%).
In Galicia, the speed with which homes are now being sold in Ourense also stands out, which went from disappearing from the real estate market in just one month from 8.4% of the properties offered to 16.3% last April. In Pontevedra the increase was less marked (from 22.4% to 26.2%); While in A Coruña, on the contrary, there was a drop in sales operations in a maximum of 30 days: before the coronavirus crisis broke out, 36.1% of the homes offered were and currently they were the 26.7%.
The bulk of the flats and houses with the For Sale sign take at least a year to leave the sales circuit: almost 30% in the Galician community. At the top is the real estate park in the province of Ourense (40.6%), followed by that of Lugo (31.6%). In Pontevedra, one out of every five homes has been advertised for sale for the longest time, and in A Coruña, a quarter.
On the national map, there is no general trend among large cities. In Valladolid it has grown (from 22% to 28%), as have Palma (from 28% to 32%), Bilbao (from 34% to 36%) and Malaga (from 38% to 40%). On the contrary, in Madrid the percentage of homes sold in a month has dropped (from 53% to 43%).
The greatest reduction in the weight of express sales occurred in Segovia (from 43 to 22%). They are followed by Vitoria (which goes from 49% to 37%) and Cáceres (from 31% to 20%).
Cuenca is the city in which the weight of homes sold in less than 30 days is greater, since it reaches 77% of the total.
It is in the northwest where the three capitals are located where the fewest homes were sold in less than a month: Zamora (13%), Ourense (16%) and Lugo (almost 17%).
The threat of a new housing bubble fades
For the first time in five years, the threat of a new housing bubble is losing steam. In addition, more and more citizens believe that it is more worth paying a mortgage than a rent and that a home is the best inheritance that can be left to a child, according to the Fotocasa real estate portal in the report published yesterday Radiography of the market of the 2020-2021 housing: a pandemic year. The sector considers that the idea of a new bubble “vanishes”. This perception was valued at 6.1 points out of 10 in February 2020, while a year later it falls to 5.5 points. In August 2020, according to the study, there was an increase in the feeling of ownership among Spanish individuals over 18 years of age, “perhaps linked to the increase that occurred in purchase intention”, but now, “with moderation of purchase intention, ownership sentiment has also moderated ”. “Although it continues to be a deeply rooted issue, this situation is also reflected in the idea that the current rental price makes it more rewarding to pay a mortgage. An idea that has lost some strength compared to the previous months, at the beginning of the pandemic ”, the report states. Linked to the feeling of being rooted in property, there are ideas such as that housing is the best inheritance that can be left to children or that buying a house is a good investment. The opinion on the rental market changes. According to the vital moment. For example, the older segments are more favorable to the feeling of ownership. The perception of the most adults about the value of real estate as property is also evident with their greater conservatism regarding the idea that living for rent is a waste of money. More than 40% of those who make up the range of 45 and 75 years are in favor of this idea.
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