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RE Experts: Now Is A Good Time To Buy A Home

1 August 2016 – El Economista

The Professional Association of Real Estate Experts (APEI) thinks that now is a “good time” to buy a home because the prices of second-hand homes “are not going to fall any further”, but it warns of the risks ahead if the political uncertainty persists. Those were the views of the President of APEI, Óscar Martínez, who highlighted that “there has been movement” in the market over the last two years and that “price increases have been widespread”.

According to the latest data from Eurostat, house prices rose in Spain by 6.3% (in Q1 2016), the highest increase since 2007, and by 4% across Europe. “There are not many new builds, which will push prices up further still”, forecasts Martínez, who thinks that now is a “good time” to buy.

In this sense, he predicts that the prices of second-hand homes are not going to fall any further and that the trend is going to be towards “stabilisation or slight increases”, above all in places where there is a shortage of housing, given that there are “very few new builds”.

Similarly, he advises homeowners to hold onto their properties unless absolutely necessary, given that “it is true that if you sell cheaply, you buy cheaply, but if you are thinking about investment, now is not the time to sell. Now is the time to sell only if strictly necessary, to change home, for example”.

The recovery will continue at a slow pace

In general, homes in good condition are more expensive than they were in 2013, when prices had decreased by 45% compared with the peak of the real estate bubble, in 2007, according to APEI, which currently represents a network of around 1,300 real estate agencies all over Spain.

The average price of private housing per square metre now stands at around €1,600/sqm, compared with €2,085/sqm in 2007, which meanst that prices now are very similar to those recorded in 2004, according to data from INE.

“Properties below that price generally have very few options for sale”, explained the President of APEI, who stated that “they are typically properties in bad locations or of poor quality, which are sold or attempted to be sold very cheaply. In other countries, those kinds of properties would be demolished”.

Regarding investments by groups, the President of APEI said that they are underway in large capitals, such as Madrid and Barcelona, but they are not been seen in the smaller capitals yet.

Meanwhile, Martínez thinks that, after the summer, and if the unemployment rate continues to fall, the recovery will continue, although at a “slow” pace, but he warns that the threat now comes from political instability. “If this insecurity persists, it will cause delays in the recovery”, he predicts.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake