House sales rise in line with Mortgages increasing in Spain

INE data

The INE in Spain published the transfer of property rights data for June yesterday.

The data taken from land registry shows that across all transfers of properties there was a significant rise when compared to June of last year. Buying in Spain for many years in the doldrums is now motoring ahead.

Resales and new builds

The sale of dwellings, one of the most important sectors was up 17% with total sales exceeding 30k thousand. Of the sale of homes 21.7% were new builds and 78.3% were resales. Developers continue to have a hard time in the market place with most buyers seeing resales as providing better value for money. 

Whilst sales of new builds were up by slightly on May of this year in total year on year they were down 30.6% whilst the sale of used homes were up year on year by 44.5%.

Increasing sales

With an increase of 3.8% over May of this year June 2015 was the first June in over 5 years to show positive growth between the two months.

International Mortgage Solutions SL who have operated in Spain since 2002 supported the data stating that May and June of 2015 were the best two months for loan completions in over 7 years and both months were up over 70% on the previuos year.

By Region

Regions most attractive to non resident buyers all had the highest absolute level of sales, some of the highest percentage increases and the most sales per 1000 registered residents, supporting the fact that foriegn investment in holiday homes and houses in Spain is on the increase again.

Sales are being helped by a weak Euro, low Euribor rates, lower interest rates being charged by Spanish Banks and prices for houses appearing to be at the lowest they are likely to fall.

Read the full article :- House sales for Spain in June

Repossesions Spain

Foreclosures in Spain

Since 2013 the Bank of Spain as part of its regulatory role has required Spanish Banks report on the breakdown of default activity and the final result of any judicial actions taken.

The data is to help assess the human impact and finacial impact on both Banks and borrowers.

Driven by much crtisism of how evictions were being handled and the suicide of a number of home owners prior to enforcement agencies removing them from their homes the numbers show a stark difference in how many defaulting loans are ending up with enforced evictions.

By far now the trend is toward only taking over unoccupied property or ones where the mortgage holder in Spain has agreed to hand back the keys in full payment of the debt.

Types of action taken by Banks in Spain

Only 25 evictions where law enforcements were involved took place in 2014.

In comparision to 2013 repossesions continued to rise as a percenatge of all mortgage holders, but far more went down the "Dacion en Pago" route. Dacion en Pagos whilst meaning you lose your home is a much more long term reasonable solution as you do not continue to carry a debt that the Banks can pursue until paid in full.

There has been a change in recent years to the approach of Banks in Spain for those who are not paying a loan on their primary residence with many Banks now having a no forced eviction rule.

Second home owners

Second home owners like non resident buyers in Spain who have a Spanish Mortgage are likely however to find the lenders much less inclined to go down an agreed foreclosure route so court cation on failure to pay and a debt outstanding at th end of it is more likley for this type of borrower.

Read the full article.- Mortgage reposession data for Spain 2014