Finance's game with property revaluation paralyzed the market, sales fell by 12.5 percent

The year 2024 was marked by uncertainty in the property market, due to the majority's initiative to offer another revaluation campaign. This uncertainty also led to a 12.5% ??drop in sales contracts.

Official data shows that the State Cadastral Agency registered 31,000 property sales, down from 35,000 in 2023. In other words, there are over 4,500 fewer properties resold in the real estate market. For agents in this sector, the figures should be a lesson for the government not to create uncertainty in the market with fiscal initiatives.

"The resale share, that is, the sale-purchase contracts, the share of apartments that already have a certificate of ownership and are put on the market have suffered a decrease of 12.58%. Until the end of November 2024, the sales market had a slump due to the news about the revaluation campaign, until this moment the decrease was 33%. But with the clarification of the situation, December marked a market recovery. In the past year, we see that the market share that has consumed more properties under construction, that is, those offered by the builder, new. This market share has increased by 20%. So those who have not been able to find in the resale market have turned to new properties", explained Reinaldo Pipiria from the association of real estate agents.

The figures are for contracts with property titles, while there are no concrete statistics regarding order contracts.

"This is because it is up to the will of the parties of the seller and the buyer, or the builder and the buyer, to file the order contract with the State Cadastral Agency."

Regarding the profit tax paid, it turns out that around 55 million euros of the collected tax have been paid, a figure that is dominated by construction companies, which account for the largest share of sales.

The share of individuals from the sales market accounts for only 3% of sales and 97% comes from sales by builders, i.e. real estate developers. So during 2024 we have a reshuffle of the portfolio.

"For months, a year ago, the majority held in suspense the initiative to offer a revaluation campaign for properties, with a reduced tax. This brought a stalemate to the market. It is now official, the revaluation campaign will start in 2026, when the new reference prices come into effect throughout the country," said Pipiria./vizionplus