Although last year, 2021, new sales records were established, this year 2022 will be beaten again. Data from the Ministry of Housing on the number of homes sold have just been published showing that in Benahavis and Marbella, and in most of the Costa del Sol, it has been the first half of the year with the highest number of units sold in history.
Focusing on Marbella, sales in the first six months of this year have exceeded those of 2004, the best year to date, by 22%. It can be seeing from the graph that more properties have been sold in this first half of the year than in the years from 2008 to 2013 and, due to the pandemic, more than in 2020. I have to say that these numbers, although surprising, do not catch anyone by surprise since it could already be sensed by the activity that was felt in those months in the market and it was already commented months ago.
GRÁFICO 2 - NÚMERO DE VIVIENDAS VENDIDAS EN BEHAHAVÍS 2º TRIMESTRE 2021
Regarding Benahavis, the data are, if possible, even more impressive. The sales of homes in this first half of the year are 82% higher than the previous historical record which was in 2019 and even in these first six months of the year have exceeded the sales of most of the "full" years except those of the years 2014, 2015 and 2021 to such an extent that the sales of these six months have exceeded by 24% the average annual sales in Benahavis.
What can be extracted from these data is, in principle, that the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the general price increases of the first half of the year, which worried us so much, did not slow down the real estate market which has been extremely active until the end of the summer. On the contrary, and again this is an assessment based on contacts with other real estate agents, lawyers, notaries and other professionals related to the real estate market, there seems to be a general opinion that in the last month the real estate activity has slowed down although it has not stopped completely. There are many negative comments in the press about a possible recession in Europe that may affect the local market with drops in prices due to a drop down in the demand based on the economic uncertainties causing buyers to abandon the idea of purchasing or delaying their purchase decision waiting for potential opportunities at lower prices.
In any case, I am positive and with what Benahavis and Marbella has to offer and the local market conditions, we will navigate nicely around this situation.