The effects of the coronavirus are gradually being felt in the real estate market. The fear of new confinements, the advance of teleworking and the rethinking of our way of life has led many citizens to question a change of housing and their preferences are already being reflected in the demand: we want more spacious and further housess of large agglomerations.
There is a change in trend and as a consequence of all this, the sale of villas and single-family homes are gaining ground compared to flats, as reflected in the data for the third quarter presented this morning by the College of Registrars. But the changes do not stop there. The average surface of the acquired properties has also grown, as well as the sale in population centers far from the large provincial capitals and, therefore, with less demographic density.
Regarding the advance of villas and single-family homes, sales of this type of home represented 20.4% of the total in the third quarter of the year, 1.94% more than in the previous quarter, in detriment to floors (79.6%). “These results assume that the weight of the single-family home has registered the maximum in the historical series and the weight of collective housing [pisos], its historical minimum “, picks up the note from the College of Registrars.
Refering to average surface of the house, This grew by 0.8% between July and September, registering its maximum in the historical series with 101.7 square meters for the housing complex.
In new free-standing housing, the average surface area transferred rose to 110.2 meters, “close to the historical maximum of the second quarter (110.4 square meters)”, while used housing reached an average surface area of 100.25 meters, which is also his largest record in the historical series. “There is a generalization of the growth of the transferred average surface, ratifying the change in preferences in the current context of health crisis, preferably demanding homes with a larger surface”, points out the College.
Considering the exclusive consideration of the sale of flats disaggregated according to their surface, the Real Estate Registry Statistics once again, it confirms how demand is focused to a greater extent on floors with a larger surface area. Thus, in the third quarter, 53.3% of the purchases of flats had a surface area of more than 80 square meters, a modality that registered a relative weight increase of 0.33% with respect to the previous quarter and an increase of 2.9% compared to the same quarter of 2019. Flats between 60-80 square meters accounted for 27.6% of sales; those of surface between 40-60 meters, 15.8%, and those of less than 40 meters, 3.4%.
Change of location
The last significant change has to do with the location of properties, a phenomenon that has been observed since the beginning of the pandemic. Many citizens are leaving the large urban centers and the more central areas in search of larger locations.
In this context, the data show that the interest in large provincial capitals has begun to decline. Taking, for example, the four major provincial capitals, Madrid in the last quarter it registered a weight of 47.3%, while in mid-2015 it accounted for 57.7% of purchases in the province. In Barcelona, the weight is 23.8% and in mid-2014 it represented 36.1% of provincial operations; Valencia it showed a weight of 28.05% and at the end of 2016 it was at 37.3%. Finally, Sevilla it registered 36.8% of the province’s home sales, while at the end of 2016 it exceeded 50%.
“The previous data point to a certain inertia towards the search for housing in population nuclei with lower density, but they should be confirmed in later quarters since they are modifications in the way of life that normally require a period of time more or less wide “, they warn from the College.
At a general level, the records show that buying and selling activity continues to be affected by the slowdown of the pandemic, although it recovered slightly in the third quarter. Housing transactions fell 16.6% between July and September, compared to 42.2% that fell in the second quarter of the year. “If we look at financing, the number of mortgages constituted through their registration fell much less than sales, total mortgages 2.5% and, a somewhat higher decrease, 5.1%, in home mortgages “.
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