The housing market is going through a moment of uncertainty, with mixed signals at the moment, with a sales volume that remains slightly below that at the beginning of last year, despite the fact that this ended up being one of the most buoyant in recent decades. The sales data released this Thursday for the month of February show that 59,689 home sales were carried out, 0.5% less than in the same period in 2025, with almost 300 fewer operations. It is not, however, the least active February in recent years, far from it, since in 2024 the market moved much less (52,402 sales).
The data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) corroborate the projections that different agents in the real estate sector have been making. 2026 aims to be a year in which the sales rate drops slightly from the previous one, due, in large part, to the growing tension between a scarce supply and a demand that continues to grow. Despite this year-on-year slowdown, more houses were sold in February than in the first month of the year (57,489), 3.8% more, and if all the properties transferred are added (whether rural, solar or other types), the volume compared to January has also been higher (+6.4%), and even exceeds that of the previous month of January, although just barely (+0.7%).
At a geographical level, home sales between the last two months of February have fallen the most, in general terms, in Andalusia (-911 transactions), with Málaga being the province with the greatest reduction (-551). While, on the contrary, Catalonia has experienced the largest year-on-year increase (856), with Barcelona as the epicenter (552).
The INE data also shows that practically all of the homes transferred by sale in February were free (93.7%), while only 6.3% were protected. These latest records mean that, in annual terms, the number of free homes transferred by sale did not change in February at an annual rate, while the number of protected ones has decreased by 7.9%. In the same way as free housing, used housing also continues to be the epicenter of the majority of operations ahead of new ones: 45,881 by 13,808, respectively. However, the fall, however slight, in sales in February compared to its previous pair, has resulted in the volume of operations in annual terms also suffering, in percentage terms, by 0.2%.
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