In Spain, the time it takes to sell a home has increased to six months, according to the idealist/data analysis for the third quarter of 2020. The extremes can be seen in the less than three months it takes to stay in the market for houses in the cities of Granada, Barcelona or Zaragoza to exceed the year on sale in other capitals such as Lugo, Palencia or Zamora.
In order to close a sale and purchase operation of a house, an owner must know how long his house can remain on the market. According to the calculations of the main real estate marketplace, currently the period of sale of a property on the market reaches an average of six months, with the analysis corresponding to the third quarter of 2020. This average time has increased with respect to the same analysis period in 2019, before the coronavirus health crisis that has shaken the entire national economy. Just one year ago, there were just over five months of time for a property for sale
The provinces of Teruel, Palencia and Zamora take more than 12 months to place a house, while on the other hand, Granada, Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza manage to reduce the selling time to less than four and a half months.
Only four provinces have been able to reduce the sales period despite this crisis if we compare it with the third quarter of last year. To the already mentioned Granada, which has gone from four months to just 3 and a half months, we can add the slight changes in Lleida (7.1 months) and Ciudad Real (9.3 months), with just a few days’ difference, until the month that Melilla has managed to reduce to over six and a half months.
Meanwhile, other provinces have seen an increase in the length of time that the property remains on the market, such as Zamora, which has increased the period of sale by more than three months to currently stand at more than 15 months.
Ourense is close to the 11 months needed to sell a house, compared to just under eight months in 2019. Above the 80 days difference between one period and the other, we can observe Cuenca or Salamanca, to settle at present in 11.4 months and 9.7 months, respectively.
The most important provinces in the property market, such as Madrid (3.8 months), Barcelona (4.5 months), Valencia (4.9 months), Malaga (5 months), Seville (5.7 months) and Alicante (6.4 months), have seen the time taken to sell homes increase by between 10 and 40 days in just one year.
The average time to sell the house is reduced in some capitals.
On the part of the provincial capitals, the names are practically repeated, with Granada once again being the area where the least amount of time is spent on the market, with 2.2 months. It is followed in this case by Barcelona, with 2.7 months and Zaragoza, with 3 months on the market. But while in the Andalusian and Aragonese capitals, times have been reduced, in the Catalan city they have increased.
On the other hand, Lugo, Palencia and Zamora have a sales period of over 12 months. In the case of the two Castilian-Leonese cities, the period has increased by more than 100 days in the market. Other capitals such as Segovia, Cuenca and Badajoz also now take more than three months to close a deal compared to the third quarter of 2019.
The homes for sale in up to 10 other capitals, together with those already mentioned in Zaragoza and Barcelona, have, however, reduced the time they remain in the market. The changes in Jaén, Melilla and Tarragona stand out, staying in eight and a half months, less than six and a half months, and just over four and a half months, respectively.
The Spanish city with the highest unit price, San Sebastian, managed to reduce the time spent in the market to 4.6 months. Other important capitals, which have not yet been named, have seen their times increase, but are still below the national average, such as Valencia and Madrid (both with 3.1 months), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (4.2 months), and Seville and Malaga (with 4.3 months in both cases).
