In 2018, the House Price Index (HPI) increased 10.3% when compared with the previous year. This rate of change was 1.1 percentage points (p.p.) higher than in 2017. From 2017 to 2018, the prices of existing dwellings (11.0%) increased at a higher rate than new dwellings (7.5%).
In the last quarter of 2018, the HPI year-on-year rate of change was 9.3%, up by 0.8 p.p. when compared to the previous quarter. Price increases were more intense for existing dwellings (9.5%) than for new dwellings (8.5%).
During 2018, a total of 178,691 dwellings were transacted, 16.6% more than in 2017. Transactions reached the 24.1 billion euros, which represents a yearly increase of 24.4%. In the fourth quarter, house sale transactions decelerated with the number of transactions moving from a year-on-year rate of change of 18.4% in the third quarter to 9.4%. In value, transactions decelerated from 29.1% in the third quarter to 10.7% in the fourth quarter. For the second consecutive quarter, the year-on-year increase in new housing (15.0%) exceeded that of existing housing (9.7%).