Tag Archives: barcelona
Spanish residential market sees sales and prices increase in June
Residential property sales in Spain increased by 19.4% in June compared with the same month in 2015, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute. Sales reached 36,856, the highest figure recorded since January of 2013, when a total of 39,920 transactions were registered and sales have now increased year on year for five months in a row. However, the data also shows that the June increase is lower than the figure recorded in May when home sales climbed by 23.6% year on year. A breakdown of the figures shows that sales of used homes increased by 24% year on year to 30,270 in June while sales of new homes increased by 2% to 6.586. There is also variation when it comes to location with more sales recorded in coastal areas. Andalucía recorded the most sales at 7,496, followed by Catalonia at 6,000, Madrid at 5,441 and Valencia at 5,012. Meanwhile, data from Tinsa, one of Spain’s leading appraisal companies, shows that the average property price increased by 1.5% in June, led by the larger cities with Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia prices up by 3.6%. Prices are also increasing in areas that are popular with overseas buyers with growth of 1.8% in the Canary and Balearic Islands and a rise of 0.3% on the Mediterranean coast. The data also shows that over the first six months of the year prices are up 8.7% in the Balearics and Canaries and 3% in the bigger cities, but down 0.8% on the Mediterranean coast. Peak to present house prices across Spain are down 41% and down 48.5% on the coast but only 26.7% on the islands where land shortages and foreign demand have supported prices during the economic downturn. The recent decision by the UK to leave the European Union has raised concerns that British buyers might put off buying and now an interest rate cut has led to Sterling weakening, making Spanish property more expensive for buyers from the UK. But Martin Dell, director of Spanish property portal Kyero believes that prices still being well below peak should mean that British buyers are still attracted to Spain. ‘The market is also more diversified against UK risk than many imagine. British buyers form just 4% of national sales and with purchases by German, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish buyers growing particularly strongly this year, the Spanish property market recovery is unlikely to be heavily impacted,’ he pointed out. ‘The Brexit vote has undoubtedly created new opportunities in the market, with Spanish agents showing a fresh interest in finding other international buyers. Those that adapt quickest will steal market share. It's never the wrong time to find more buyers, regardless of how this pans out,’ he explained. ‘We have seen no reduction in buyer enquiries in the month following the referendum. We know Brits buy property in Spain for a variety of reasons and we think most will be largely unaffected by Brexit. However we do call… Continue reading →
Spanish property market recovery set to continue in 2016
Looking ahead to 2016 it looks as if the Spanish house market will continue to recover but the latest data shows it is still a rollercoaster and growth very much depends on location. According to the latest figures from appraisal company Tinsa prices are still increasing with its latest index up by 1.9% in November year on year. However, the increase is somewhat exaggerated by an unusual fall in prices last year and on a monthly basis prices were down a fraction compared to September. The Tinsa index shows, however, that the recovery is broad based as house prices rose in all the areas covered. Prices in Barcelona and Madrid were up by 3%, coastal areas popular with overseas buyers saw price growth of 1.4% and the Balearic and Canary Islands 0.2%. But the recovery still has some way to go as since the peak of the market house prices are still down 41.3% in general, and 48.2% on the coast. House prices, excluding new builds, actually fell by 1% in November according to the Idealists price index and are down 2.1% year on year. However the index shows that five region saw monthly price rises, albeit marginal. The Balearic Island saw price growth of 0.9% followed by the Canary Islands up 0.5%, Andalucía up 0.3%, Navarra and Castilla-La Mancha both up 0.1%. In contrast, the most significant declines were registered in Murcia with a fall of 3.3%), La Rioja down 2%, Catalonia down 1.9% and Madrid down 1.3%. So it must be remembered that different indices use different measures and this has to be taken into account when trying to work out what is happening in the market. Both the property division and research department of BBVA, Spain’s second largest bank, are optimistic about the outlook for the Spanish property market in 2016. They are forecasting stability for the overall market, and growth in some sectors during 2016. All the key market metrics are already showing an improvement, with sales and mortgage lending up across the board, and house prices rising in a number of cities, the latest BBVA report says. Anida, the bank’s property division, pointed out that data from Notaires shows that home sales were up 9.5% in the year to August, and up 8.7% in September. ‘This dynamism in sales is also continuing in the autumn months. 2015 will go down in history as the year the real estate sector stabilised,’ the Anida report points out. BBVA Research echoes this optimism in its latest report which forecasts that 2015 will end with sales up 10%, to 400,000 homes sold, and that the sector will leave behind the recession in 2016, and consolidate its growth. BBVA also points out that an acute shortage of new home building means that the excess new homes inventory is undergoing a significant reduction and is disappearing altogether in some of… Continue reading →
Downward house growth trend in UK continues, says latest index report
UK house prices increased by 0.3% in May and the annual price growth figures moderated to 4.6% from 5.2% in April, according to the latest index figures. The data from the Nationwide Building Society confirms a gradual downward trend that takes the average price in the country to £195,166. Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, pointed out that this general trend has been in evidence since the summer of 2014 but was briefly interrupted in April when price growth edged up to 5.2% from 5.1% in March. However, annual house price growth is now running at less than half the pace prevailing in the middle of 2014. ‘Over the longer term we would expect house price growth to converge with earnings growth, which has typically been around 4% per annum. However, much will depend on supply side developments and in recent years the rate of building activity has remained well below that required to keep up with population growth,’ Gardner explained. The index report shows that cash transactions remain relatively high in the UK residential market. ‘We estimate that the share of cash purchases in the housing market reached an all-time high of 38% in the first quarter of 2015,’ said Gardner. ‘Continued healthy demand from cash buyers has helped to support transaction levels in recent quarters, since mortgage lending has remained relatively subdued. For example, in the first quarter of 2015 overall housing transactions were down by around 5% compared with the first quarter of 2014, while mortgage completions were around 11% lower,’ he pointed out. ‘Although the 38% share was a record, it was only modestly above the average of 36% prevailing in 2014. The significant rise in the share of cash transactions occurred in the wake of the financial crisis, where a tightening in credit conditions and a deterioration in the labour market limited the number of people able to buy with a mortgage,’ he added. Gardner also said that the current low interest rate environment is likely to have supported the flow of cash into other asset classes in recent years, including UK residential property. The Nationwide data suggests that the share of cash purchases in London is not out of line with the rest of the UK, which can be regarded as a surprise, given the greater involvement of investors, both domestic and overseas, in the London property market. ‘A limiting factor may be that house prices in the capital are over twice as high as the rest of the UK at £408,780 versus £188,566 in the first quarter of 2015,’ added Gardner. Continue reading →
