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ARCHIVED - Málaga property sales rise to pre-pandemic levels in February
The housing market appears to be recovering from the initial Covid slump
The level of activity in the residential property market of the province of Málaga appears to be well on the road to full recovery after the initial slump when the coronavirus pandemic reached Spain, and the latest figures published this week by the national government’s central statistics unit suggest that sales are now running more or less at pre-Covid levels again.
During February it is reported that 2,435 transactions were registered, just 8 more than in the same month last year, immediately before the first wave of Covid infections brought about a national lockdown. The monthly total is the highest on record over the last year and only the second year-on-year increase in the last 12 months, and it seems safe to state that the dramatic decreases of last April and May (-48 per cent and -58 per cent) have been consigned to the past.
Largely as a consequence of the pandemic, the running 12-monthly total of residential property sales in Málaga is currently 23 per cent lower than a year ago at a little under 23,000, but in current conditions, and always assuming that the fourth wave of infections in Spain does not assume unforeseen proportions, it appears likely to continue rising in the near future.
The February sales figures also indicate that activity is approaching pre-pandemic levels elsewhere in the country, with the total of 43,185 homes changing hands in Spain representing a decrease of just 4.3 per cent in comparison with the same month last year. 7 of the country’s 17 regions recorded year-on-year rises, the most significant of them being in the northern regions of La Rioja (13.7 per cent) and the Basque Country (10.9 per cent), while the sharpest falls were those reported in the Canary and Balearic Islands (-16.2 per cent and – 15.9 per cent respectively). This is perhaps inevitable due to the heavy dependence of the regional markets in the islands on buyers from the rest of Spain and abroad, and to the travel restrictions which remain in force.