Buying property in Spain remains strong annual growth in March – Yahoo Finance Spain

MADRID (Reuters) – The sale of homes in March again showed signs of recovery in a context of economic recovery, although it experienced a decline in comparison with the month above, where the largest volume of transactions was recorded in three years.

in the third month of the year, the buying and selling of registered dwellings increased 16.8 percent over the same month of 2015, while in monthly terms there was a decline of 8.2 percent.

“The revival of the real estate sector is a fact thanks to the reopening of credit, price stabilization and a slight improvement in the economy. All indications are that the worst is over but the behavior is still very uneven, “said Beatriz Toribio, responsible for studies of web housing Fotocasa.

However, Toribio said that this situation may not be as encouraging in the coming months, where” we can begin to see annual increases smoother and even negative data that will reveal to what extent have influenced the good run that the sector some of the threats they face, such as political uncertainty and government functions. “

the number of registered purchases, 31,925, was below the 34,800 March and 32,400 in January, but remained above the level of the previous five months, highlighting the gradual stabilization of the sector after a sharp adjustment that reduced drastically the number of transactions and prices.

Despite the improvement in trading activity, supported mainly on second-hand housing, the figures are still far from the more than 100,000 monthly operations They realized in the years before 2008, when the housing bubble burst in Spain.

However, according to experts, current levels may be close to a more sustainable situation than before the crisis.

“the data show that the normalization of the market is a reality and seems to take hold with figures that are above the 30,000 units sold each month. (…) Although have to wait what happens in the coming months, this easing in growth rates could indicate that we are approaching natural number of purchases and sales for our industry, “said Fernando Encinar, head of studies idealista.com real estate portal

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