Although the complete set of statistics for annual property sales in 2019 will not be available until Feb/March 2020, we can tell by the trends in the 3rd quarter and October’s figures that there has been a slow, but continuous decline of the market.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, home sales in Spain shrank by 1% in October, compared to the same period of the previous year. Murcia region has performed well in the second half of 2019. Sales were down by 1% in October, but we came out 8th of the 25 regions, so well into the top half of the table. When you consider we only get a small share of the Spanish tourist pie and consequently very little international marketing, we should be very pleased with these results for now.
The first half of 2019 saw steady sales growth across Spain, but the market then began a steady trend of slowing down. We will be very interested to see how the final quarter of 2019 pans out.
For almost 3 and a half years now, I have been attempting to analyse the effects of Brexit on the overseas buyer’s market. It’s almost impossible to spot a negative, or indeed, a positive trend. It’s very frustrating! However, immediately after the UK election on December 12th, the UK pound actually rose from 1.17€ to 1.22€. The result suggested the majority of the British public just wanted to ‘Get Brexit Done’! The pound has since dropped back to 1.17€, but this is quite usual as many people go abroad for Christmas and therefore the currency weakens as British tourist exchange their currencies. This phenomenon also occurs during the summer holiday season, so yet again, we cannot say if the pro-Brexit election was either positive or negative – tricky isn’t it!
From our own experience, the last 4 months of 2019 were not exactly buoyant. However, there are certainly more clients already booked for January and February 2020 than we saw this time last year; some good news if you’re considering selling your property in 2020, as international ratings agency Moody’s forecast most of Europe to see high house price inflation this year. Spain is to be the highest at +5.5%! Quite what effect this will have on the sales market is unclear. It could boost sales, as buyers might want to get in early, or it could cause a further slowdown. As usual, I will monitor the situation as the New Year progresses and report back.
This time last year we had a lot to be hopeful about:
The opening of the new airport near Corvera promising to bring more visitors nearer to the centre of the region.
Brexit was going to be done by March 29th bringing a bit more stability to the markets.
Both, as it turned out, didn’t quite live up to expectations, so in 2020 we could see the airport improve with increased traffic as its reputation grows and new flights are added. At least we know it works very efficiently.
As for Brexit… well, let’s not go there for now.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
Kenneth Whettall
Commercial Director
Fuente Alamo Real Estate/Murcia Coast & Country Properties
Info@fuentealamorealestate.com
Tel 0034 968 598 173