Home sales in Catalonia up 23%, highest growth in 10 years

According to data published in March by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, home sales in Catalonia in 2014 rose 23.55% from the previous year, the largest increase in the past 10 years.

Last year there were a total of 55,033 real estate transactions concerning homes, exactly 10,493 more than in 2013. In Barcelona, which led sales in Catalonia, there were 36,463 transactions, while in Girona, Tarragona and Lleida there were 8,062, 7,693 and 2,815 operations, respectively.

Such a sharp jump in the number of home sales hadn’t been seen since 2004. The previous record in percentage of increase was from 2005, when the number of transactions increased 19.4% year on year. Nevertheless, the overall home sales figures for 2014 are only one third of those in 2005.

However the figures show a turning point that has been confirmed with data from February 2015, the latest published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute. In February, 4,558 homes were sold in Catalonia, 23.19% more than in February 2014. This increase makes for five consecutive months of year-on-year growth.