That Spain has A problem With housing it is no novelty. Even so, it is interesting to find data that specifies to what extent it has been complicated to access a house in this country. The Property Registrars they just disseminated one that results especially valuable And it shows that those who want to buy an apartment today meet the highest prices of the historical series, even above those of the 2007 real estate bubble.
However, it is convenient to handle those figures with perspective.
Prices above 2007. The real estate market is in full Price climbing. That also does not suppose any surprise and can be seen in the ascending curves that have been showing for a long time graphics like those of the idealistic portal. This week the College of Registrars published A report That leaves an extra, more interesting reading.
The sustained price increase has led to the average housing price has reached in Spain “A new historical maximum”overcoming the values that were handled in 2007, before the real estate bubble. According to the data collected by the registrars, the average cost during the last quarter of 2024 stood at € 2,164/m2.
Table of the study of registrars on the evolution of the price of housing.
Going down to detail. The dossier It allows to delve even more and check for example how the new and ‘second -hand’ housing housing market is responding, which has accumulated from afar the largest volume of sale operations. In fact, almost 637,000 transactions Scored by the professional body throughout 2024, just over 505,000 were starring used properties, 6.4% more than the previous year. The new house left ‘Solo’ 132,000 sale, although that data reflects a considerable increase with respect to 2023, of 21.6%.
As for prices, at the end of 2024 the square meter of the release was charged on average to 2,338 euroswhile that of the already used properties was quoted at 2,133. In the first case the price exceeds that it was handled between 2006 and 2007, before the brick bubble exploded. The same does not happen with the second -hand housing, which although it has been more expensive, it would still continue slightly below of those prestisis values.
Prices with small print. The study of registrars of Spain effectively shows an average price of housing in historical maximums, above of the 2007 level, but the big question is … does that mean that the houses are more uninquerable today than before the real estate bubble? To answer that question, you have to take into account the difference between the nominal valuesthat measure the current prices of each moment (in this case 2024) and The real onesin which the effect of inflation is taken into account.
A few days ago, after the publication of the registrars dossier, Doctor of Economics Daniel Fuentes He warned in x which shows nominal prices, with which the comparison between 2007 and 2024 has 17 years apart. And its inflation. The nuance does not remain value to the report data, but it should be taken into account if comparisons are made with the prices prior to the 2007 brick crisis.
Click on the image to go to Tweet.
More perspectives. In fact, registrars are not the only ones who have published more or less updated information on Spanish real estate market prices. In April 2024 the Bank of Spain launched A report in which it clearly reflected the differences between nominal and real values. According to their calculations, in 2023 the average housing prices had been recovered since 2014 with a nominal revaluation of 56%; But in terms of real revaluation that rise was much lower, of 30%.
What does that mean? That in the first case the prices of 2023 were about to exceed those of 2007 (they were 2% below); But in the second, taking into account the real values, the average of 2023 was still 28.5% lower at 2007. The indicator Tinsa Imie (monthly real estate market index) December It also shows that, although the values have grown clearly, the general indicator It is still below of the scored in 2007.
Graph of the Annual Report of 2023 on the housing market in Spain.
Graph of the Bank of Spain on the evolution of the price of nominal and real housing.
Evolution of the price of housing in Spain reflected in the October October report.
Different situations. That current prices approach or exceed those of 2006 and 2007 also mean that the current scenario is the same as that of the years prior to the brick crisis. “The demand after the bubble was speculative, the one now is demographic,” says Fuentes In your tweet. During A talk with The country Santiago Carbó, Professor of Economic Analysis, also ruled out a crisis similar to that of the bubble. The reason: the great current challenge of Spain is the mismatch between supply and demand, rather than indebtedness, as was the case then.
The problem, Carbó aboundsis that finding affordable housing becomes “increasingly difficult” and it will be difficult for the measures taken by the Government to let their effects feel this year or even the next one. “The incorporation of thousands of floors to the market would be needed to relieve this tension, and that requires years.”
Is there more? Yeah. The study of the registrars allows to know three other factors equally interesting: the differences between regions, the number of signed mortgages and the weight of foreign buyers. With regard to the first issue, that of the lags between communities, the report shows that disparate realities coexist in the Spanish market. For example, while Madrid led the cost of the house, with € 3,780/m2, in Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura that average did not even reach the € 1,000 barrier.
The weight of the foreign buyer … and the banks. The report also shows that the vast majority of purchases are made with bank financing. Throughout the last quarter of 2024, 124,000 mortgages were signed, which allowed to cover 72% of the operations.
As for foreign buyers, registrars estimate that they were behind 14.5% of sales. The British (8.6%), Germans (6.7%) and Dutch (5.9%) who bought mainly on the coastline. The weight of the foreign profile is in fact especially pronounced in the Islands, Community Valencian and Murcia. Housing is more expensive than ever in Spain but the data has a trick.
Images | Andrés García (UNSPLASH), Registrars and Bank of Spain 1, 2 and 3