Property registrars are already anticipating that the housing market started 2026 with the brakes on. The numbers leave no room for doubt: in January, 56,776 home sales were registered throughout Spain, representing a 7% decrease compared to the same period last year.
This is the largest drop in transactions since June 2024. And it comes right after a record year, when more than 700,000 sales were recorded and real estate activity reached all-time highs.
Virtually all of Spain's autonomous communities have started the year in negative territory. The steepest declines are seen in the Canary Islands (-22.7%), Madrid (-20.8%), Castilla La Mancha (-18.5%), and Asturias (-15.5%). Aragon (-12.2%) and the Valencian Community (-10.8%) also experienced significant drops. Castilla y León (-9.1%), the Balearic Islands (-8.5%), Murcia (-4.9%), and Galicia (-3.5%) all saw declines, though less pronounced. Catalonia (-0.1%) and Cantabria (-0.4%) remained virtually unchanged.
It wasn't all downturns. Melilla (+53.8%), Navarre (+20.4%), and Ceuta (+10.5%) led the increases, followed by the Basque Country (6.3%), La Rioja (4.8%), and Andalusia (2.3%).
Looking at the total number of transactions, Andalusia leads with just over 12,000 sales, followed distantly by Catalonia (9,673), the Valencian Community (8,464), and Madrid (5,652).
As for mortgages, the trend shifted. Here, growth continues unabated, marking 19 consecutive months of increases. In January alone, 40,087 mortgages were signed on homes, 5.5% more than in January 2015. However, this is the smallest increase since October.
The increases are seen across almost the entire country. Ceuta (+32.4%), Extremadura (+31.3%), Navarre (+29.4%), and Andalusia (+19.8%) stand out. Madrid saw an 8.9% increase, and Catalonia grew by 2%.
Conversely, mortgages fell sharply in Aragon (-26.4%), La Rioja (-21.4%), and the Canary Islands (-19.9%). They also declined in the Basque Country (-4.8%), Cantabria (-4.3%), and Castile and León (-3.7%).
In absolute numbers, Andalusia once again leads with 9,100 new mortgages, followed by Catalonia (7,129), Madrid (5,234), and the Valencian Community (4,748). The Association of Property Registrars points out that the slowdown in mortgage lending has come later than in sales and, moreover, has been considerably less pronounced. Mortgage lending has outperformed sales in almost every month analyzed, including the most recent one. In fact, mortgages now account for 78.9% of all home sales.
Source: “Registrars anticipate a slowdown in home sales at the start of the year” — idealista.com, March 5, 2026.
