Housing market momentum continues

House sales in April were up 29% on the same month last year, with a total of 35,199 transactions, the biggest annual rise since August 2010 and the highest total since February 2013, according to the national statistics institute (INE).

HOUSE sales in April were up 29% on the same month last year, with a total of 35,199 transactions, the biggest annual rise since August 2010 and the highest total since February 2013, according to the national statistics institute (INE).

House sales have actually risen consistently for 19 of the last 20 months and by 13.8% overall since the beginning of this year.

The figures compared to last year fell by 2.9% in January, but rose 15.8% in February, 16.8% in March and 29% in April.

Over these first four months of the year, resales have gone up by 20.6%, but sales of new homes fell by 6.6%.

The resale market has grown for 26 consecutive months, including by 32.3% in April, to a total of 28,028 transactions. Social housing made up 10.5% of the April total and the rest were bought on the free market.

Free market house sales are up 14.3% so far this year, while social housing is up 10%.

The Valencia region was in third place for house sales in April, accounting for 5,423 transactions, which is 19 more than Madrid and 42 less than Cataluña, while Andalucía came top with 6,715 homes changing hands.

There were 1,112 house sales in the Murcia region, of which 946 were resales and 146 new homes, and 992 were on the free market and 120 were social housing.

In terms of the number of transactions per 100,000 inhabitants, Valencia came top with 138, followed by 129 in the Balearic Islands and 103 in Madrid.

Alicante was the leading province in the region, making up 2,476 of the total, while there were 2,315 in Valencia and 632 in Castellón.

Of those in Alicante, 2,008 were resales and 468 new homes, and 2,322 were on the free market and 154 were social housing.