The Valencian Community is the third autonomous region in which the sale and purchase of homes has grown the most in January compared to the same month in 2020, with 5,577 operations, as reported Tuesday by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Institute of Statistics) (INE). Andalusia was the region with the most transactions, with 8,376 sales, followed by Catalonia (6,356), then the Valencian Community (5,577), and then the Community of Madrid (5,277).
At the national level, sales and purchases plummeted by 15.4%, to 39,753 transactions. Despite this decline, the largest since July 2020, the total number of sales and purchases is the highest since February, just before the outbreak of the pandemic. With the year-on-year decline in January at the national level, the sale and purchase of housing breaks with two consecutive months of positive year-on-year rates after the rises in November (+1.9%) and December (+3.7%).
The year-on-year fall in home sales and purchases in January was the result of an 18.8% drop in transactions involving used homes, to 31,337 transactions, and, to a lesser extent, a 0.4% drop in transactions involving new homes, to 8,416 transactions, the highest figure since February last year. In the first month of the year, 90.7% of the dwellings transferred by sale and purchase were free dwellings, and 9.3% were protected homes.
The sale and purchase of free housing fell by 16% year-on-year in January, to 36,069 transactions, while that of protected housing fell by 10%, totalling 3,684 transactions. In monthly terms (January 2021 over December 2020), housing sales and purchases advanced by 10.1%, its lowest rise in January in at least five years.
Last January, the highest number of home sales and purchases per 100,000 inhabitants occurred in the Valencian Community (139) and Andalucía and La Rioja, both with 125. In absolute values, Andalucía was the region with the highest number of home transactions during the first month of the year, with 8,376 sales and purchases, followed by Cataluña (6,356), the Valencian Community (5,577), and the Community of Madrid (5,277).
Fifteen Autonomous Communities presented negative annual rates in January in the number of property sales and purchases, while only Cantabria and Navarre increased their transactions, with increases of 4.9% and 0.3%, respectively. The largest year-on-year decreases were in the Canary Islands (-52.2%), Murcia (-30.4%), the Balearic Islands (-28.5%), the Basque Country (-21.8%), and La Rioja (-19.4%).
