Home sales fall 2.5% although they register their second best October in 19 years

The real estate market hit the brakes in October, although it continues to remain at the record levels at which it has been since the beginning of the year. In the tenth month of 2025 2.5% fewer homes were purchased than in October 2024which was a month that broke records driven by the lowering of interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB). Transactions on second-hand properties fueled the market to the point of setting a new monthly record in the historical series, thus compensating for the collapse of transactions on new construction apartments.

According to data published this Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in October 67,789 home sales were registered in Spainthe largest monthly data so far in 2025, although slightly below the 69,501 operations recorded last year around the same dates. This year-on-year decrease is added to the 3.4% recorded in August, thus representing the second drop in a year and a half, although with the 3.8% rebound in September in between. “Although the figures fall slightly compared to a year ago, they continue to show great activity in the market,” says Ferran Font, Director of Studies at the Pisos.com portal.

Despite the decrease, this is an unusual volume of operations in the last 19 years. It is the second highest figure for the month of October in the historical series from the INE, which dates back to 2007. At that time the real estate bubble was already beginning to deflate. 58,518 apartments were sold. The market had not come close to 60,000 transactions in the month of October until last year, when sales shot up by 51.5% in the heat of the drop in interest rates and a monthly volume of operations was reached unprecedented since May 2007. The number of transactions closed in October of this year is also the second largest figure for any month of the year since then.

However, at the same time that the de-escalation of interest rates has ceased, the excessive growth of buyers who begin to purchase homes has given way to a panorama of less fluctuation. Currently market movements are being more moderate than at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025. The 2.5% decrease in October is preceded by a rise of just 3.8% in September, which points to a scenario of stabilization at levels not seen in almost two decades.

“The appetite for purchasing a home remains extraordinarily high,” says María Matos, Director of Studies at Fotocasa, who points out that the market is going through “an authentic golden stage” driven by low interest rates and the “confidence” of the buyer. So far this year, 601,543 homes have been sold in Spain12.3% more than in the same period in 2024, at an average of about 60,000 monthly transactions. “The current pace will make 2025 the best year since 2007,” predicts Matos, while warning of pressure on supply and the upward trend in prices. “Demand remains eager to buy as we continue to live in expectations of price increases, to which are added interesting interest rates, but these stimuli contrast with the little supply in the market,” agrees Font.

Unlike what happened two decades ago, the dynamism of the market is based fundamentally on the sale of second-hand apartments. In October they represented 78.7% of operations, compared to 21.3% of new construction homes. In fact, The sale and purchase of used properties broke a record after rising 0.5% compared to October 2024 and reach 53,325 transactions, the highest monthly volume in at least 19 years. On the other hand, the sale of new homes plummeted by 12%, with a total of 14,464 operations, the second highest figure since February 2013, although far behind the 16,434 in 2024.

The stamina of the second hand was not enough to keep sales in positive territory. In fact, The year-on-year decrease was noted in all autonomous communities except five. Cantabria, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia and Murcia were the only ones where operations grew compared to last year, and they did so between 8.9% and 2.8%. At the opposite extreme, in Madrid they fell by 11.7%, although it remained the fourth community with the most activity (7,805 purchases and sales), along with Andalusia (13,813), Catalonia (11,093) and the Valencian Community (10,207).