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Housing production slows down by 1.2% in first quarter

During the first quarter of the year the number of free housing starts was 1.2% less than the same period of the previous year, being a total of 25,847 units. Of the quarter, the month of March is the one with the worst figure since 2016. These data were published by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma).

In the first quarter of the year, the number of open market housing starts was only 315 units. This shows a clear downward trend. However, the number of free market housing starts followed an opposite trend, with a 0.8% increase in the number of units completed.

Despite January's housing starts of 9,832 units, up 11% compared to the same month last year, February and March were down year-on-year. In February the number of housing starts was almost the same as in January, with 9,304 units, down 0.8% compared to the previous year.

However, March was the worst, with a drop of 14% compared to the previous year. Above all, it should be emphasized that the figure of 7,161 units started is the lowest record made for this month, since 2016, when construction work began on 6,208 free housing units.

In addition, new home sales fell by 3.9% compared to 2022. It is also related to the slowdown in the transactional market, which recorded a 2.1% decline in the first quarter, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The total number of vacant housing completions in the first quarter of 2023 was 19,085 units, an upward trend so far of 0.8%.

In January housing completions were 4,576, down 16.1% compared to the previous year, but in February vacant housing completions were 6,244, up 4.9% from the previous year's figure. In March this increase in housing completions strengthened, with 8,268 units, up 9.8% from March of last year.

In fact, in Spain, not since 2011 have so many vacant homes been completed in the month of March.