In February, the percentage was 15%. Another 15% are transferred within a period ranging from one week to one month.

Author: Roberto L. Vargas

Source: La Razón

Owners who sell their homes at market prices are nearly literally having them taken out of their hands. The percentage of homes that are sold in less than a week has notably increased in recent months. While in February of this year, 15% of homes sold were on the real estate marketplace Idealista for less than a week, by December, this percentage had risen to 20%. Added to this are another 15% of units that took a relatively short time to find a buyer, between one week and one month, compared to 17% in February.

In capital cities, “express sales” are more frequent, especially in major markets. According to Idealista’s data, the highest percentage of sales in less than a week is in Granada, where 34% of properties found a buyer in under seven days. It is followed by Pontevedra (31%), Salamanca (30%), Tarragona (29%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (28%), Lleida (27%), Albacete (27%), and Barcelona (26%). Next are the cities of Almería (25%), Madrid (25%), Girona (24%), San Sebastián (24%), Guadalajara, and Málaga (23% in both cases).

On the other end of the spectrum are Teruel, where only 3% of homes are sold as “express sales,” followed by Ceuta with 4%. Next are the cities of Zamora, Lugo (6% in both cases), and Ciudad Real (9%), the only cities with a percentage below 10%. In Ceuta (48%), Zamora (34%), Teruel (30%), Lugo (30%), or Burgos (23%), a significant percentage of sellers need to be patient as it takes more than a year to sell their homes.

Solvent Demand

For Francisco Iñareta, spokesperson for Idealista, this data on express sales “confirms that despite the increased cost of financing, there is still demand capable of responding quickly to market-priced homes or those that clearly represent an opportunity. It is likely that over the next few months we will see the number of transactions cool down, but qualified demand will remain active and closing deals quickly,” Iñareta predicts.

Sociedad de Tasación has also detected this “express sales” phenomenon in a very specific market segment, namely new homes. Its CEO, Juan Fernández-Aceytuno, stated yesterday during the presentation of the appraiser’s sector forecasts for this year that “there is very little stock of new homes, and the absorption time is getting shorter. New homes in Madrid, Barcelona, or Málaga disappear from the market within 15 days. There is not much time to decide whether to buy or not,” Fernández-Aceytuno said. This situation will likely keep new home prices rising since the scarcity of product reduces buyers’ negotiating power.

The shortage of new homes is more acute in Madrid and Barcelona. According to the latest report from Sociedad de Tasación, dated May, which analyzes all residential promotions—whether not started, under construction, or completed, with a maximum age of five years from the registration date—in municipalities in Madrid with more than 50,000 inhabitants, there were 411 new housing promotions totaling 18,355 homes, with an available stock of 3,088 units. This amount represented a reduction of 1,377 homes in the last year, a 30.8% decrease. The situation was more critical in Madrid, where the stock had decreased from 2,507 to 1,542 units, a 38.5% reduction. With these figures, Sociedad de Tasación stated that if the current absorption rates continue, the supply of new homes could be exhausted in five months in the Community of Madrid and in five months in the case of Barcelona.