Four houses per thousand inhabitants. Only one autonomous community reached that proportion in the last quarter of 2023 and it was Valencia. In a general context of decline in the real estate market, Alicante and Valencia were one of the few provinces (12) where more homes were sold than in the same period of 2022, although in the last quarter both territories also registered a notable slowdown compared to the previous quarter. first nine months of the year.
They are conclusions drawn from the official data of the College of Property Registrars. They show that Alicante surpassed in absolute numbers even two more populated provinces, such as Seville and Valencia, to become the third that registered the most purchase and sale operations in the year 2023.
Above all, the dynamism of the Valencian real estate market in new construction is striking, which shows a very significant contrast with respect to the provinces where more houses are sold. Number one, Madrid, registered a total of 15,165 new home sales in 2023, but that represented a drop of 16.8% in the year-on-year balance compared to 2022. In second place, Barcelona signed 9,917 transactions, with a decrease of 9 .9%.
On the contrary, the 6,908 sales made in Alicante were 12.7% more than the previous year, and the 5,323 in the province of Valencia represented an increase of 7%. They were still less than those registered in Malaga (6,602), but in this case the decrease is among the largest in the country, on the Costa del Sol no less than 24% fewer new houses were sold than in the previous year.
With a lower sales volume (1,910), given its smaller number of inhabitants, however, Castellón also experienced great growth in the new construction market, registering 33.3% more operations than in 2022.
The general balance sheet of the property registrars indicates that the extraordinary results achieved during 2021 and, fundamentally, 2022 “are giving way to a progressive slowdown process, which places the housing purchase and sale market at levels similar to those achieved prior to the health crisis.”
According to their analysis, “over the next few quarters, this trend of slowing down the pace of home sales and purchases is expected to continue, but within levels that could be classified as normal, exceeding 10 sales per thousand inhabitants per year, having registered in 2023 a result of 12.03”.
The autonomous communities that registered the highest number of sales during the fourth quarter were Andalusia (26,289), the Valencian Community (20,958), Catalonia (20,502) and the Community of Madrid (15,089).
But of them, Valencia is the autonomous region that suffers a smaller overall decrease, just 4.2% compared to 15.8% in Madrid, 12% in Andalusia or 10% in Catalonia, and it is the only one that grows in housing sales. new compared to 2022, 12.8%, number one in the country, ahead of the Canary Islands, Asturias and Murcia, which remain below 11% in a general context of declines, very accentuated especially in Madrid (-16, 8%).
Another professional Association, that of Notaries, includes another very significant piece of information in its annual report, and that is the high percentage of operations that did not require financing by mortgage in the Valencian Community.
According to the annual balance sheet of notaries, more than half of the purchases made in 2023 in Spain (56.2%) were signed without a mortgage, with the Valencian Community in the lead with 70.2%. This proportion contrasts with that of the only autonomous regions where mortgage purchases are still the majority: Basque Country (68.1%), Madrid (67.2%) and Navarra (53.1%).
The Valencian Community is confirmed as the second largest market in Spain for home sales, only behind Andalusia. The market shares of each of them with respect to the total of Spain were at the end of 2023 20.15% in Andalusia, 16.41% in the Valencian Community, 15.74% in Catalonia and 12.05% in Madrid, accumulating between the four of them 64.35% of the sales market in Spain.