69
69

INE: Home Values Growing in Six Regions, Three Quarters in a Row

12/12/2014 – Expansion

Average housing prices registered over the third quarter of the year went up 0.3% in year-on-year terms. This is the second consecutive rise after six months of continous fall, reports Spanish Official Statistics Institute (or INE), experts’ most trusted source of information. From January to September, the increase was of 1.6% from the same period in 2013.

The slight price rebound noted down in the third quarter is by 5 basic points lower than the Q2 figures (0.8%), mostly due to decrease in pace of new housing value rising, which from a 1.9% rate went down to 0.8%.

What do the numbers say about the residential market? ‘The data starts to portray a stabilization trend and that this year’s market is painted in totally different colours than it was in 2013′, Angel Serrano, Business Director at Aguirre Newman, pointed out.

The resales market, the most reliable one if it comes to measuring the pulse of the residential sector, is also levelling out. Pre-owned house prices increased by 0.1% in the third quarter, one bps less than in the previous quarter. Research Director at pisos.com, Manuel Gandarias, explains it as follows: ‘Second-hand homes still are being more discounted than the new units. For greater supply, purchasers have a wide margin to haggle the prices down‘.

Dwellings became more expensive in six out of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. While Andalusia showed absolutely no change, in other ten regions prices fell further into the red. Madrid took the lead in increase ranking with 2.8%, followed by Cantabria (2%), Murcia (1.5%), Catalonia (1.1%), the Valencian Community (0.9%) and the Balearic Islands (0.5%). The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla also set their home values higher, by 1.4% year-on-year.

On the other end we find Navarre where dwelling units cheapened by 6.9% from the last year, Extremadura (down 4.6%), La Rioja (3.5%), Castille-La Mancha (3.2%) and Castille and Leon (2.8%).

The data supports the hipothesis that recovery would come asimetrically. ‘In some provinces and regions we start to see new property developments, whereas in other the adjustment process seems to take much more time due to their housing surpluses’, said Angel Serrano, ‘but the 2015 market will go completely stable’.

Mr Gandarias warned that ‘the statistics should be taken with a pinch of salt’, as ‘basing on the horrible 2013 figures inevitably leads to finding improvement but the real positive numbers are still on the way’.

 

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: AURA REE