Property sales in Malaga province fall by 30%, more than in the rest of Spain

The province, which includes the Costa del Sol, had its worst September since the pandemic, with only 2,403 property transactions

Cristina Vallejo

MALAGA.

Friday, 1 December 2023, 15:06

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The fall in home sales has accelerated in Malaga province as well as Spain as a whole. In September, there were just over 44,000 real estate transactions in the country, representing a decline of 23.6% compared to more than 57,700 just a year earlier, according to figures from the INE national statistics institute that have been made public.

But in Malaga province, which includes the Costa del Sol, the decline is even more pronounced: the 2,403 sales of this last month are practically 28% down on the 3,331 of September last year. And in other provinces of Andalucía the situation is even worse, such as in Cadiz and Cordoba, where the year-on-year setbacks are around 35%. Overall, home sales in the region have dropped at rates of 26% year-on-year in the last month. The figures for September 2023 were 8,500, compared to 11,658 for the same month last year and reflect an acceleration in the speed of the deterioration of the national and local real estate market.

In August, house and apartment sales fell in Spain at rates of 14%, while in Malaga the fall was around 20%. In Andalucía, the year-on-year decline was 16.5%.

September was the worst for Malaga province since 2020 when 2,251 home transactions were signed; in both September 2022 and 2021, sales had exceeded 3,000. Since 2015, sales in Malaga have been oscillating between 2,100 and 2,600.

In the case of Spain, the number of sales registered in September has been the worst since 2020. But last year the volume of transactions was higher than the average for the period between 2015 and 2019.

Contrast

It is also interesting to contrast what happened in the market for new homes with that of used ones. In Malaga province, the drop in new home sales in September has been greater (-29%) than for second hand homes (-27.5%), contrary to what happened at the national level, where operations with new homes decreased by 19.6% compared to a decline of 24.5% for second hand homes.

In Malaga, the 436 sales of new homes in September pale next to the almost 2,000 for used homes. The deterioration in the new housing market is attributed in Malaga to the shortage of new constructions.

Worryingly, Malaga province this year is worse than that of the country as a whole. Between January and September, the fall in the number of home sales in the province is close to 18%, going from 32,564 in 2022 to 26,723 this year. Meanwhile, in Spain the decrease is less than half, of around 8.5%, going from 499,900 sales of the first nine months of last year to 457,424 in the same period this year.

Between January and September 2023, some 5,208 real estate transactions with new homes have been registered in the province, which represents a drop of 26.4% compared to the same period of the previous year. The decrease in new housing operations is 15.5%, or 21,515 units.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the drop in new homes sales is limited to 4% year-on-year in the first nine months of the year, while the decline in transactions in the second hand market is around 9.5%.

Not impacting prices

However, for the moment, the drop in the number of transactions is not impacting prices. According to a recent report published by Idealista, the square metre price in the province has exceeded 3,000 euros on average in October, which represents a monthly increase of 0.4% and a year-on-year increase of 11%.

Idealista spokesperson, Francisco Iñareta, said that although it is "unquestionable" that the decrease in the volume of sales is significant it must be taken into account that 2022 was a much more positive year for the sector.

Iñareta said that in the first nine months of the year 19% more homes have been sold than in the same period in 2019 nationwide. And, in the province, the 26,723 homes that were sold between January and September in Malaga are 18.5% more than the 22,543 sold in the same period in 2019, the pre-pandemic year.

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