What's the source?

Every year when I write my Spanish Property Market Reports I include a section called “Where the Numbers Come From”. I do this because Spain’s property statistics are derived from two sources - the Notaries and the Property Registries and they never coincide. Unfortunately, many commentators, journalists and analysts use both and don’t mention the source. Is it possible they don’t realise that they’re not counting the same thing? That’s a big problem. When I compare the figures from both sources on a full year basis I find they always differ and not by a little, it’s in the 20% - 25% range.

An article in the economy section of El País caught my eye this week in which the journalist informed us that, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), the 64,730 property purchases recorded in July 2025 were a record for the month and 13.6% up compared to July 2024. On top of that, this figure was 1.6% higher than the previous July record in July 2007 just months before the 2008 global market upheaval started. However, the journalist didn't identify the source of the statistics - did they come from the Notaries or the Property Registries? Where statistics come from really matters when analysing trends in the property market.

Property Registries

So I went digging on the INE website to pull up the relevant statistics and only then did I find out these July numbers were from the Property Registries which, in my opinion, makes them meaningless.  In my view, stats from the Property Registries can be ignored as they count when a property is inscribed in the registry, not when it completed in front of the notary and inscriptions may be weeks or even months after completions. For example, at the end of 2024 clients of The Property Finders purchased a property owned by an Spanish Limited Company and getting it inscribed in the Land Registry after it had been taken out of company ownership took two months. So, if a property purchase takes place in front of a notary in August but doesn’t get registered until October, is that a statistic that belongs in August, which is when the notary would count it, or October, which is when it would show up in the land registry. Is it a Q3 transaction or Q4? A property which completes in December 2025 and inscribed in January 2026 will be recorded by the notaries as a 2025 transaction but as a 2026 one by the Registry. 

Therefore, this July ‘record’ is nothing of the kind. We can be absolutely certain that many of the inscriptions relate to property purchases completed in front of a notary in May and June. Some may relate to July, particularly if they happened in the early part of the month or in a municipality with little turnover but the fact is, we just don’t know. And until the notaries returns are published we’ll be none the wiser. 

The Notaries

The Notaries are my preferred source for a straightforward count of transactions numbers, with breakdowns by nationality, autonomous regions and price per square metre. This format started in 2007 so gives an interesting overview of international buyer patterns from just prior to the 2008 market meltdown and the subsequent recovery. In addition, MITMA (Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible)  is good for a more local breakdown by province and municipality and also compiled from the notaries’ returns.

As a result of the discrepancies I ignore statistics from the Property Registries and always use those from the Notaries, And all because Notaries count when a deal is done and Registries count when inscriptions are done.

©Barbara Wood