Spanish home sales drop in first quarter confirms 2026 market contraction trend

The Spanish institute of statistics confirmed on Monday what real estate experts had already predicted: home sales are on a path of containment and are failing to surpass the record figures with which the market closed in 2025 (some 750,000 sales).

Registered home sales fell by 2.2% in March compared to the same month in 2025, reaching 61,295. This decline was largely driven by sales of new homes, which plummeted at a double-digit rate.

This drop in March follows similar declines in January and February, resulting in a 2.6% decrease at the close of the first quarter. However, March saw a slight rebound compared to the previous month, with 2.7% more transactions than in February.

The year-on-year decline was due to a decrease in new home sales, which fell 10.2% year-on-year, to 13,057 sales. Conversely, sales of second-hand homes rose 0.2%, to 48,238, the highest figure for March since 2007.

In March, 93.8% of sold homes were open-market units, while 6.2% were subsidised housing. Open-market home sales totalled 57,500 sales, 1.6% fewer than in March 2025, while subsidised home sales decreased by 10.4% to a total of 3,795.

Eight region saw more sales this March than in March 2025. The largest increases were in Castilla-La Mancha (+11.5%), Navarra (+8.2%) and La Rioja (+5.2%). Andalucía was the region with the most home sales during the third month of the year, with 12,494.

Nine regions saw the number of sales decrease compared to March last year, mainly Cantabria, where home sales dropped by 15.4%.

The slowdown in sales during the first three months of the year does not worry real estate experts, who speak of a "normalisation" in the figures because sales remain above the 60,000 mark, ensuring that the market maintains its dynamism.

Major real estate portals indicate that the housing market has begun to stabilise after five years of record figures. According to them, the lack of available housing is behind the slowdown.

They also link the number of sales in the coming months to the development of geopolitical conflicts, such as the war in the Middle East, and their impact on inflation.

Experts warn that if inflation rises, the European Central Bank (ECB) will end up raising interest rates, currently at 2%. This will make mortgages more expensive, which will further limit access to housing, especially for young people.