Real estate sales and loans

In the third quarter of 2016, nationwide real estate unit sales agreements[1] totalled 172,301, increasing by 19.9% over the same period for the previous year. 158,798 (92.2%) transfers of properties concerned homes and appurtenances and 12,710 (7.4%) real estate units for business purposes.

In relation to the type of use, sales of residential properties increased by 17.7% whereas sales of properties for business use increased by 57.9%.

In the third quarter of 2016, all geographical areas had positive trends for transfers of properties and the North-East (+29.3%) and North-West (+21.3%) were the geographical areas which registered the most positive result. North-East had the highest increase for both homes and appurtenances (+25.0%) and business use (+101.0%) transfers.

Nationwide, the mortgage-secured loans stipulated in the third quarter of 2016 were 93,997, a 9.8% increase.

Mortgage-
secured loans were above the national average in the Islands (+12.9%) and in the North-West (+11.8%).

Mortgage-secured loans stipulated in metropolitan cities showed a higher increase (+12.1%) than the one observed in small cities (+8.2%).