Spanish Housing Market Continues to Grow Stronger

Spanish house prices rose by 6.49% in 2018 from a year earlier to €1,493 per square metre (sq. m) – the biggest annual rise since 2006, according to TINSA. 

After eight long years of house price declines, Spain’s housing market finally returned to growth in Q1 2016. Spanish house prices had fallen by a total of 41.9% from Q4 2007 to Q3 2015, based on figures from TINSA. There were 31 consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines. Demand continues to rise strongly. In the first eleven months of 2018, home sales in Spain surged 10.6% to 481,220 units from the same period last year, after annual rises of 15.4% in 2017, 14% in 2016 and 11.5% in 2015, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE). The continued increase in transactions was mainly driven by foreigners buying homes on the coast and in cities like Barcelona, the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca, which are the country’s most popular areas with overseas purchasers. Most foreign homebuyers are Britons, French, Germans, Belgians, Italians and Swedes.

Construction activity is picking up again. During the first seven months of 2018, the number of residential building permits increased by 7.7%.

Source: Global Property Guide