Madrid/Oviedo (EFE) , according to data published this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Asturias was one of the only two autonomous communities in which home sales rose in February, together with the Valencian Community, where it rose by 2.9 percent.
In a monthly rate, that is, in relation to January, the purchase and sale of housing in the Principality rose by 1.7 percent.
The increase in the sale of housing in Asturias in the first tranche of 2023 occurs after last year a rise of 20.6 percent was registered in the community, which was the fourth highest among the autonomous communities.
Of the 1,019 homes that were sold in February, 833 were second-hand and 186 were newly built, and 907 were free and 112 protected.
In the whole country the falls are resumed
In the country as a whole, the purchase and sale of homes fell by 6.6% in the interannual rate in February, a decrease that was accentuated to 11% with respect to the data for January, in a context marked by the rise in interest rates. interest and the consequent increase in the cost of mortgage financing.
With this new fall, the purchase and sale of homes in Spain resumes the decreases of December (-10.2%), which were interrupted in January with a rise of 6.6%.
With the decrease registered in February, in the accumulated figure for the year, home sales move in negative territory with a fall of 0.1% compared to a year earlier.
New construction leads falls
In February, 50,186 housing transactions were recorded. In second-hand ones, which represented more than 80% of the total, sales fell by 5.5% year-on-year and 11% month-on-month, while in second-hand the decreases were more pronounced, of 11.1% and of 10.7%, respectively.
In the second month of the year, 40,479 used housing transactions and 9,707 new ones were registered. In fact, new home sales have fallen in five of the last six months, while in the case of second-hand homes they have registered negative year-on-year rates in two of the last three months.
By type of dwelling, 92.2% of those transmitted in February were free, a total of 46,255. This data shows a drop of 6.5% compared to February 2022 and 10.6% compared to January 2023.
For its part, only 7.8% of the sales were of subsidized housing, which is equivalent to 3,931 operations, 7.9% less than a year earlier and 15.5% less than the data for January.
The number of home sales carried out between individuals in February was 33,590, which is 6.3% less than in the same month of 2022.
Declines in most communities
By autonomous community, in February there were interannual falls in most of the communities, with the greatest decreases being those of La Rioja (23.6%); Cantabria (17.9%); Extremadura (16%); Community of Madrid (15.6%); Galicia (11.9%); Andalusia (11.8%) and the Balearic and Canary Islands (10.8%, respectively).
Growth in sales was only observed in Asturias (19.9%) and the Valencian Community (2.9%).
The communities with the highest number of transmissions were Andalucía (9,795); Valencian Community (8,241); Catalonia (7,857) and Madrid (6,388). EFE