Good news and bad: Home sales in Spain ebullient in first half of year, but foreign markets off the boil, writes Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight [Video]

THE Spanish property market had an excellent first half (H1) of 2024 with the second-highest sales level in more than 15 years, up 6% on the same period last year to 350,818 transactions, according to the notaries.

The only time sales were higher was in the first half of 2022, when pent-up demand from 2020 and 2021 fueled a post-pandemic boom.

The second quarter (Q2) figure was even better, with sales up 10% to 189,909 suggesting the trend is turning increasingly positive as the year progresses. 

With these figures in hand it’s fair to say that the market is one of the most buoyant in Europe.

Sales by region

By regions of greatest interest to foreign investors sales were up the most in Madrid (H1 +10%, Q2 +16%) with most regions showing a similar pattern of accelerating growth in the second quarter. 

Only the islands showed negative growth in H1, with transactions falling …