By Clara-Laeila Laudette

MADRID (Reuters) – A rush to buy after the end of coronavirus lockdowns has reduced the stock of homes for sale in Spain’s big cities by 4% over the past year, data from leading property advertising portal Idealista on Tuesday showed.

Madrid and Valencia, a Mediterranean town on the coast of Spain, saw their available inventory drop by 11%. However the stock in Malaga and Seville fell by 6% and 5.5% over the same period.

Due to high demand in the first nine months of 2020, many people bought homes in a rush after severe coronavirus restrictions across Europe were lifted in September 2020.

Some Spaniards were looking for a change after staying in their homes for prolonged periods. However, a 6.6% increase of household savings over 2020, as per research done by Spanish bank BBVA(MC:), allowed them to have more cash to deposit once the restrictions had been lifted.

The northern city Pamplona was hit hard by the drop in housing availability. It is known for the San Fermin bull-running fiesta and saw its stock plummet 28% since September 2020.

Barcelona was the exception to the rule, which saw the introduction of rent controls by the local government in September 2018. It had approximately 7% more properties for sale than twelve months prior.

According to Reuters, “It might be due to the cap on rent prices – landlords may prefer to not rent their properties out and instead opt to sell them,” a source familiar with Catalonia’s property market said.

According to the source, there is 40% less property available for rental in Barcelona today than there was a year earlier.

According to data provided by the College of Registrars, Spanish property is still very popular with foreign investors. The College of Registrars revealed that around 12% of Spanish buyers are Britons, while nearly 9% of Moroccans and 7%-8% respectively, in the first quarter of the year.