The Purchase of Homes Drops 11% in May and Mortgage Rates Sink Almost 24%

Madrid, Jul 6 (.).- The sale of homes fell by 11.4% in May compared to a year earlier, while the granting of mortgage loans for the purchase of a house sank by 23.9% dragged down by the rise in interest rates and the consequent increase in the cost of financing.

According to data provided this Thursday by the General Council of Notaries, the price per square meter continued to grow, albeit very discreetly, after rising 0.8% year-on-year.

Despite being in double digits, the falls experienced by both sales and home mortgages are lower than those recorded a month earlier, when in April they dropped 20.7% and 32%, respectively.

THE .PRAS ONLY GREW BY TWO .UNITIES

In May, 58,880 home sales were registered, according to operations notarized before a notary.

By type of housing, apartment transactions decreased by 11.2% year-on-year, reaching 45,236 units, while single-family ones decreased by 11.8% to reach 13,644 units.

Sales fell in all the autonomous communities except Asturias (8%) and Murcia (1.3%).

On the contrary, the greatest decreases occurred in Navarra (-22.8%); Basque Country (-18.7%); Balearic Islands (-18.5%); La Rioja (-17%); Madrid (-16.8%); Aragon (-16.1%); Galicia (-14.3%); Catalonia (-12.4%); Canary Islands (-12.2%) or Andalusia (-11.9%).

MORE THAN 56% OF THE .PRAS WERE DONE WITHOUT A MORTGAGE

In May, the percentage of home purchases acquired with a mortgage loan stood at 43.7%, so that the remaining 56.3% were closed without financing.

In addition, in purchases that required a mortgage, the loan accounted for an average of 70.2% of the price.

As a whole, mortgage loans for home purchase decreased by 23.9% year-on-year in May, to 25,754 operations, while the amount of these loans fell by 6.3% year-on-year, reaching an average of 141,915 euros.

Mortgages for housing fell in all the autonomies, the greatest decreases being those of Navarra (-40.6%); Cantabria (-28.6%); Balearic Islands (-27.5%); Madrid (-27.1%); Catalonia (-26.7%); Basque Country (-25.7%); Galicia (-23.8%); Valencian Community (-23.7%); Aragon (-23.3%); Extremadura (-21.8%); Andalusia (-21.2%); Murcia (-19.9%); Castilla-La Mancha (-19.6%); Castilla y León (-19.4%); Canarias (-15.5%) or La Rioja (-14.3%).

THE PRICE OF HOUSING CONTINUES POSITIVE

Faced with the falls in operations and mortgages, house prices continued to rise in May, albeit moderately after becoming more expensive by 0.8% year-on-year to 1,616 euros/m².

The prices of flats experienced a decrease of 0.7%, reaching 1,766 euros/m², while the price of single-family homes reached 1,342 euros/m², 3.6% more.

By order of magnitude, double-digit increases were recorded in Castilla-La Mancha (23.5%), the Balearic Islands (17.2%) and Asturias (17%).

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