In the fourth quarter of 2018, notary agreements regarding sales of real estate units and any other kind of exchange of properties and appurtenances in return for payment (230,258) increased by 4.7% compared with the previous quarter (+4.4% in the residential sector and +10.5% in the economic properties sector).
In comparison with the previous quarter, the increase concerned all the geographical areas both for the residential sector (North-West +5.5%, North-East +4.7%, Centre +4.4%, South +2.8% and Islands +1.8%) and for the economic sector (North-West +22.1%, Islands +8.2%, South +6.7%, Centre +4.6% and North-East +3,9%).
Almost the total of notary agreements (93.9%) concerned transfers of residential properties (216,173), followed by transfers of properties for business purposes (12,931;5.6%) and estates for special uses and multi-owned properties (1,154; 0.5%).
Compared with the fourth quarter 2017, real estate unit exchange agreements increased overall by 7.6%, the highest level of growth experimented in the last two years. The expansion concerned both the residential (+7.8%) and the economic sector (+4.6%).
The increase observed for the housing sector affected the entire national territory: +10.1% in the Islands, +9.9% in the North-East, +9.7% in the Centre, +7.4% in the North-West, +2.8% in the South. The growth concerned both metropolitan cities (+8.1%) and small municipalities (+7.6%). The economic sector also registered positive changes throughout the country (+5.7% in the North-West, +5.1% in the North-East, +4.8% in the Centre, +2.8% in the South, +2.0% in the Islands), involving metropolitan cities (+5.8%) as well as small municipalities (+3.8%).
Mortgage-secured loans (115,478) increased by 2.2%, compared with the previous quarter and by 8.4% over the fourth quarter of 2017.
Mortgage-secured loans grew throughout the national territory, both compared with the previous quarter (Centre +3.5%, North-East and Islands +2.1%, South +1.7% and North-West +1.6%) and compared with the fourth quarter 2017 (Centre +12.3%, Islands +10.6%, North-East +9.1%, North-West +6.7% and South +4.9%). As regards types of municipality, the growth concerned both metropolitan cities (+9.8%) and small municipalities (+7.3%).
In 2018, agreements regarding transfers of properties registered an increase of 4.7% (+5.5% residential and -5.8% economic sectors) and of 3.6% for mortgage-secured loans, in comparison with the previous year.