Tinsa: House Prices Rise By 21% & 16% In Barcelona & Madrid In 1 Year

2 October 2017 – El Mundo

The housing market is continuing its gradual recovery across the country, although there are notable differences in the pace of growth depending on the area. Whilst the YoY average growth in prices is contained at the national level (4%), in the cities of Barcelona and Madrid, prices are soaring, according to provisional data from the IMIE Local Markets index published by the appraisal company Tinsa for the third quarter 2017. Specifically, house prices rose by 20.6% in the Catalan capital and by 15.5% in Madrid.

Tinsa reports that the cost of finished homes (new and second-hand) reached an average of €1,258/m2 between the months of July and September, up by 4% compared to the same period in 2016. The cumulative decrease since the pre-crisis peaks has therefore reduced to 38.6%, on average.

“The market continues to be characterised by a recovery at different speeds, with an overall positive trend, driven by the good prospects for economic growth and with the cities of Barcelona and Madrid as the main drivers of the recovery. In recent months, we have seen how other large regional capitals, such as Valencia and Sevilla, have been experiencing a positive evolution in terms of prices, whereas Zaragoza has been falling somewhat behind”, said Jorge Ripoll, Director of Research Services at Tinsa.

Ripoll said that the situation is characterised by stabilisation in most markets, given that average prices in 13 regional capitals are now lower than they were in Q3 2016. “The number of cities in that situation has decreased with respect to the previous quarter, along with the intensity of the decreases, which are becoming more moderate in general”, he said.

The same outlook at the autonomous level

The Community of Madrid, with a YoY increase of 13.2% and Cataluña (12.5%), stand out as the regions where average house prices have risen by the most over the last 12 months, way ahead of Navarra (6.6%), Cantabria (5.7%) and the Canary Islands (3.3%). At the other end of the spectrum, Extremadura (-3.3%), Castilla-La Mancha (-3.2%) and Murcia (-2.8%) are the regions that lead the price decreases in YoY terms.

If we look at the evolution of prices in 2017 alone, the Community of Madrid recorded an increase of 10.7% between January and September, compared to 8.9% in Cataluña. The region of Madrid, with an average price of €2,004/m2, strengthened its position in Q3 as the most expensive autonomous region, ahead of País Vasco (€1,931/m2), which was also outperformed in Q3 by the Balearic Islands (€1,953/m2).

The regions that record the highest difference in prices with respect to the peaks of the boom are La Rioja, where the average value is 56.1% lower than 10 years ago, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (-53.7%) and Aragón (-49.8%). The regions where average prices have been the most contained since the crisis are the Balearic Islands (-28.4%), Galicia (-32%) and Extremadura (-32.2%).

Barcelona is the most expensive city

Barcelona saw its price gap with San Sebastián widen, as prices in the Catalan capital reached €3,184/m2 compared to €2,997/m2 in the Basque capital. Both still ranked ahead of Madrid (€2,488/m2) and Bilbao (€2,204/m2) (…).

Other capital cities that recorded significant rates of YoY growth in Q3 include Tarragona (13.4%), Vitoria (10.3%), Palma de Mallorca (9.3%), Pamplona (9.1%) and Málaga (7.6%).

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake