Following the publication of the data on the number of sales for the fourth quarter of 2020 by the Ministry of Housing, we can start to extract conclusions on how the real estate market was affected by the total lock down of the first months, the partial lock down that followed, the travelling restrictions and the inability to leave some of the countries origin of the buyers of the Costa del Sol. If the 2020’s results are analyzed for the municipalities we usually study, the number of sales went down around 30% in Marbella, 16,2% in Benahavis, 18,9% in Mijas and had surprising increased of 8,3% in Estepona (the charts for Marbella and Benahavis are included but not the ones for Mijas and Estepona).
NUMBER OF HOME SALES IN MARBELLA
The explanation on why the sales increased in Estepona is on the sales of new units that went up in Estepona a remarkable 168%. The same effect occurred in Benahavis and Mijas with increases in sales of new units of 19% and 24% respectively. On the other hand, in Marbella there was not an increase of new units sales and that did not clean up the final sales results for the year. In this sense, it is to be noted that the sales of new units are registered when properties are delivered but not when the sale is closed and, therefore, the sales of new units accounted for in 2020 are probably sales closed in 2019 or earlier and can not be attributable to 2020.
NUMBER OF HOME SALES IN BENAHAVIS
If we focus the analysis on the sale of second hand units, probably the most affected by the covid pandemic, the reductions in the number of sales are similar, around 30% in Marbella and Benahavis and approximately 20% in Estepona and Mijas. In a way, it can be concluded that the real effect on the real estate market of the covid virus is this decrease in sales between 20% and 30%. In the second quarter, the one of the tight lock down, the decrease was about 60% but that was compensated partly in the last two quarters of the year.