Property Portals believe Dec low housing sales attributed to taxes changes

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Real estate portals have been saying that for the first time since the crisis erupted last year, they surpassed half-trillion of home sales in Spain, but stressed that the low activity in the month of December can be attributed to the uncertainty created with the Supreme Court's decision on the tax put on documented legal acts.

According to the recent data provided by the INE, during the past year there were 515,051 home sales transactions, 10.1% more during the previous year. From this calculation, up to 33,931 were formalized in December, a figure that, although it represents an increase of 3.8% year-on-year, falls 19.7% in the monthly comparison.

"The data may already be affected by the seasonality and the stoppage of sales that occurred in October due to the uncertainty generated by the ruling of the Supreme Court on the AJD," infers the idealista Studies Chief, Fernando Encinar, who believes that the figures from 2018, with half a million operations, "may mean we are approaching the top of the cycle" and predicts a possible slowdown in growth if the ECB starts the process of raising rates by increasing financing.

The Director of Studies and Public Affairs of Fotocasa, Beatriz Toribio, underlines that the purchase of housing "reawakens interest and that has had a direct transfer to prices" and "it has been mainly the investors and the demand for replacement who have pulled from the demand, "because" the average citizen on foot still has many difficulties to access a home."

In his opinion, the housing market "is heading towards a period of stabilization" and stresses that the December data "is the lowest record of all 2018", which could be linked to the sector's own tendency and to the possible effect of Supreme Court ruling on the tax.

In 2018, the sale entailed five successive years of increases, but the figures recorded are still far from the 775,000 operations of the 'boom' in 2007.

The Director of Studies at pisos.com, Ferran Font, noticed that in December and for the ninth month in a row, they "reinforce the continuity of a moderate growth trend", despite the push for both the second-hand market (+9,9 %) as new housing (+ 11.1%).

In Compracasa they indicated that the sector "faces 2019 with optimism and with a forecast of growth" despite the political uncertainty generated by the elections of next May and the shadow of an overtaking of the general elections. It also predicts an increase in housing prices if the ECB increases rates.

"Although the profitability of the Spanish property market may be somewhat lower this year than it was in 2018, the advantage of Spain is that it is still seen as a country with growth prospects, especially when compared to other European countries. and neighbors, and that does not seem to change, "explains the CEO of Compracasa, Toni Expósito.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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