Only 3% of properties sold in Malaga province are subsidised housing

If subsidised housing units (referred to as VPOs in Spanish) are not built, nobody would be able to sell them: this obvious syllogism is reflected by the statistics on property transactions, which show a further decline in the sale and purchase of subsidised housing. During the first nine months of this year, 836 VPO flats were sold in the province of Malaga, which means an average of less than one hundred transactions per month. In contrast, 26,840 free-market homes were sold in the same period. In other words, of every one hundred homes sold in the province, only three are subsidised.

This almost total absence of subsidised housing in the property market is the result of a decade with hardly any projects for this type of housing, either public or private. Before the major housing crisis, and even during it, protected housing played a notable role in construction activity. But the new upward trend in construction has almost completely neglected this type of projects. This trend is reflected in statistics from the college of architects, which show zero VPO projects in the province for two of the three quarters so far this year.

As a result, it is easy to predict that this type of housing will continue to practically disappear from the map, at least in its ownership form. Although it is true that Malaga city council plans to deliver more than a thousand subsidised housing units by 2026, most of them will be for rent.

On the other hand, the statistics on property sales and purchases reveal that the second-hand market is showing signs of exhaustion in Malaga province. Nine months is long enough to draw a reliable conclusion and the provincial picture is that of a slowdown in the second-hand housing segment, which has dominated this latest real estate cycle. Between January and September, some 18,767 transactions involving resale properties were registered in the province, just 1.5% more than in the same period last year. This near-zero growth in the second-hand housing segment contrasts with the strong dynamism of new construction: the sale of this type of property increased by 23.7% compared to the first nine months of 2024, reaching 8,909 transactions. The weight of new housing now represents 32.9% of the total number of real estate transactions in Malaga.

Real estate portals have been warning about the reasons for the slowdown in the second-hand market: supply is scarce after several years of unbridled activity. This lack of 'stock' means that prices continue to rise unchecked, which in turn makes buying a home inaccessible to increasingly large sections of the Malaga population.

Adding together the slowdown in sales of second-hand housing and the growth of new construction paints a picture of the Malaga property market between January and September: 27,676 sales and purchases, representing an increase of 7.7% compared to the same period in 2024. This is practically half the growth recorded at national (14.4%) and regional levels (15.9%), which means that Malaga is no longer the driving force behind the property boom. In fact, it is the Andalusian province with the lowest rate of increase: its 7.7% contrast especially with the 32% growth in Almeria and the 19% in Seville and Jaén.

The cooling of the resale market is also lightly felt at national level, as in September the sale of this type of property grew by only 2%. However, this trend is still not reflected in the year-to-date, as the sale of used flats increased 11% and 12% in Spain and Andalucía, respectively, between January and September.