Covid-19 has caused a 47% drop in home purchases, the lowest figure in 7 years

Home sales fell by more than 47% in the second quarter of the yearwhich was marked by the state of alarm declared in response to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and recorded its lowest figure in seven years – since mid-2013 – with fewer than 79,000 operations.

With these figures, housing transactions also recorded the lowest figure ever recorded in a second quarter in the entire historical series of statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, which began in 2004.

Furthermore, compared to the first three months of the year, when 116,070 transactions were recorded, home sales in the second quarter were 32% lower.

Specific, Between April and June, 78,972 home sales were recorded, a figure that is far from the 149,600 transactions that occurred in the same period of the previous year.

In the second quarter of the year, free housing sales were the predominant transactions with a total of 75,434 transactions, 47% less than a year earlier and 32% less than the previous quarter. These falls marked the lowest level since 2013.

For its part, protected housing totaled 3,538 sales, which represents a year-on-year drop of 39% and 2% compared to the start of 2020.

Used housing accounts for 87% of transactions

By age, almost all transactions corresponded to second-hand homes, with 87% of the total.

In this case, sales plummeted by 50% in the second quarter of the year – in the midst of the state of emergency – to 65,576 transactions and fell by 35% in the inter-monthly rate, according to Ministry data.

New housing transactions, meanwhile, fell by more than 25% to 9,858, compared to the previous quarter by 4.3%.

Foreign sales are collapsing

By nationality of the buyer, residents of Spain were responsible for 78,526 home sales: 69,145 by Spaniards (28% less than a year earlier) and 9,381 by foreigners (a 52% drop).

In addition, between April and June, 244 transactions were recorded by non-resident foreigners, 39% less than in the same period in 2019.

The average value of free housing sales is at its highest level since 2010

Despite all these falls, the average price of free housing sales rose by 10.3% compared to the second quarter of 2019 and stood at 170,970 euros, the highest figure in ten years.