In the fourth quarter of 2015, nationwide real estate unit sales agreements totalled 183,786, increasing by 9.1% over the same period for the previous year. 171,517 (93.3%) transfers of properties concerned homes and appurtenances and 11,121 (6.1%) real estate units for business purposes.
In relation to the type of use, sales of residential properties increased by 10.0% whereas sales of properties for business use decreased by 2.5%.
For the full year 2015, the total number of real estate unit sales (625,305) increased by 5.2% over the previous year, transfers of properties for residential use (584,822) increased by 5.7%, and real transfers of properties for business purposes (36,891) decreased by 1.3%.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, all geographical areas had positive trends for transfers of properties for homes and appurtenances, and the North-East (+11.0%) and the North-West (+10.9%) geographical areas registered the most positive result. On the contrary, as far as transfers of units for business use were concerned, only the Islands increased by 14.0%.
Nationwide, the mortgage-secured loans stipulated in the fourth quarter of 2015 were 100,428, a 29.8% increase.
For the full year 2015, mortgage-secured loans (342,467) increased by 23.0% over the previous year, registering a positive trend in all the geographical areas.
Mortgage-secured loans were above the national average in the South (+29.9%) and in the Islands (+25.7%).
Mortgage-secured loans stipulated in metropolitan cities showed a more accentuated increase (+25.1%) than the one observed in small cities (+21.5%).