Spain Records 30% Property Sales Increase in March

Spain Records 30% Property Sales Increase in March

In the past 12 months over 400,000 Spanish homes have tradedhands; 15% more than in the prior 12 months.

The recovery continues which is wonderful for the whole of

spain

The latest data from the Institute of National Statistics (INE) released last week show that March has seen an increase of 30% in transactions year-on-year.

According to the data from the INE, the 40,461 homes changing hands during March in Spain was the highest monthly figured reported since 2011. It would have been the highest since the credit crunch bit in 2008, except the government boosted 2011 sales with a tax break.

2017 has been a record-breaking post-recession year for property transactions so far, with January and February posting sales data that resembles something from before the housing bubble burst.

Putting it all together, some 114,528 Spanish properties were bought and sold in the first three months of 2017; around 15% more than during the first three months of 2016. Extrapolating it across 12 months shows that property sales will reach 419,000 – an increase of 15% over the previous 12 month period.

16 of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain reported increasesin property sales. The only area where sales contracted was the Canary Islands, where sales were down 3.5% compared to last March.

The largest increases were reported in La Rioja, Cantabria, and Asturias; all of which reported growth of over 40%.

Analysing the data from the INE further shows that 110 property transactions occurred for every 100,000 people considered to be of home-buying age. This came up to 150 and 148/100,000 people in Valencia and the Balearics respectively.

Latest Data Finds Spain is Home to 30% of Vineyards in EU by Area

Latest Data Finds Spain is Home to 30% of Vineyards in EU by Area

Spanish wine has always been placed in a bit of a unique position by the wine drinkers of the world.

Spanish wines have long been considered the best in Europe

It’s not quite as traditional or exceptional as French wine, nor is it as romantic as Italian wine. It doesn’t carry the buzz of the New World wines of Chile, South Africa, and Australia. Spanish wine is the kind of wine you take with you for a housewarming party. It says you aren’t cheap, but that you aren’t going to splash out either because your friends have a new house.

This “everyman” nature of Spanish isn’t a bad thing however. It is because of this that Spain has become the largest wine producer in the European Union, according to data released by Eurostat this week. The data shows that Spanish vineyards account for 30% of vineyards in the EU.

With 940,000 hectares, Spain has a larger area of vineyards than any other member of the EU. France came in second with 803,000 hectares (25%), with Italy snatching third with its 610,000 (19%). Portugal was a distant fourth, with only 199,000 (6%).

There’s an interesting statistic hidden in the data. Romania – which is the fifth-largest wine producer with 184,000 hectares – is also the EU country with the most individual wineries. There are 855,000 wineries in Romania, putting it well ahead of Spain, which came in second with 518,000 wineries.

Spain is still one of the most important producers of plonk in the EU however, as grapes from Spain are used not just in Spanish wine, but also in French and Italian wines. The Castilla-la-Mancha region of Spain is the largest wine producing region; housing 434,000 hectares – 14% of the entire vineyard area of the EU. The other large regions are Languedoc-Roussillon (293,000 hectares) and Aquitaine (144,000 hectares) which are in France.

The EU has a total of 3.2 million hectares of vineyards spread among 2.4 million individual sites. Most nations in the EU have some vineyards at least, all the way from Romania to the UK (553 vineyards) and Luxemburg (326 vineyards).

There are a few EU countries with absolutely no vineyards. They include Belgium – which has beer, Ireland – which has Guinness, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – where the weather is too cold, Poland, Finland, and Sweden – with similar weather issues, and, perhaps most surprisingly, the Netherlands.