Property sales in Balearics rise by four percent

The sale of homes in the Balearic Islands rose in April by almost four per cent. The number of transactions - 721 - was more than in April 2014 but was below the national average rise of 9.4%. By property type, used homes accounted for very much more than new builds: 551 in all. The property sales data show a return to the trend established in the Balearics in January and February when there were increases of 17.5% and 4.3% respectively. This trend is not, however, totally confirmed, as in March there was a fall of 21%.
Though the April figure places the Balearics below the national average, in terms of house sales per 100,000 inhabitants (81), these sales were in fact above the national average of 74.
Nationwide, the 9.4% average rise equated to 27,241 transactions, and the inter-annual rate for April shows an upward movement of seven percentage points: in March, it had only been 2.1%. There have now been eight consecutive months of inter-annual increases, largely thanks to sales of used properties: in April, these amounted to 21,014. In the first four months of the year, accumulated data for sales shows an increase of 9.1%, though there is a great difference between used and new properties, sales of the latter having fallen by almost 37% while sales of used homes were up by around 45%.
The highest number of sales per 100,000 inhabitants was in Valencia (95) followed by the Canaries with 92, though in absolute terms Andalusia headed the number of sales with 5,651 transactions. Catalonia was in second place with 4.219. In relative terms, the regions where there were the greatest inter-annual rises were Asturias and La Rioja, with the greatest falls having been in Cantabria and Murcia.