Changes

The economic crisis filtered into the real-estate market and financial operations right from the very beginning of the pandemic, resulting in an extraordinary drop in the amount of mortgages signed from March to July 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year, with pre-pandemic figures remaining elusive until the summer months (General Council of Notaries Public, 2021). Moreover, the banking industry’s concern about possible defaults on mortgages combined with the uncertain outlook in the initial stages of the pandemic caused [https://www.emmi-benchmarks.eu/ Euribor ] to rise, although it remained in negative territory. This could have further discouraged buyers and shrank the property market. Nevertheless, despite this initial reaction, 2020 eventually ended with a drop in Euribor and an uptick in new mortgages, yet figures remained below those registered in 2019. The worst figures in 2020 were registered in April, and the decrease in the amount of mortgages granted came together with a drop in the average amount offered (''[https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/es/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736170236&menu=resultados&secc=1254736169948&idp=1254735576606 Mortgage Statistics'', National Statistics Institute, 2021]).

Advanced services, which are high-value added and high quality specialised services whose main resource is knowledge, are crucial for the competitive positioning of companies and regions and played a crucial role in overcoming the health and economic crisis. Despite their importance, however, employment in this sector initially took a knock, registering 50% fewer affiliated workers in April 2020 than in 2019, yet figures did begin to pick up in May (General Treasury of the Social Security, 2021). In the first year of pandemic and within the advanced services sector, research activities, consulting and computer programming saw their affiliate numbers grow by 3.1%, 2.8% and 2.7%, respectively (Figures on ''Average [https://www.seg-social.es/wps/portal/wss/internet/EstadisticasPresupuestosEstudios/Estadisticas/EST8/EST10/EST290Average Affiliation to the Social Security system''], General Treasury of the Social Security, 2021). The urgency of medical and pharmaceutical research and the need for companies to adapt to a new context defined by home office, the electronic provision of services and a sudden increase in the demand for computer security go a long way to explaining this positive trend.