Tag: Fotocasa

INE: House Sale Growth Slows Down In Cataluña

14 November 2017 – Expansión

The negative consequences of the crisis caused by the “independentistas” extends to every sector of the economy. And one of the most affected is the real estate sector, as the data published on Monday by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) shows. Cataluña was the third autonomous region where house sales grew by the least during the month of September, with a YoY increase of 2.1%, equivalent to 6,146 operations.

With that percentage, Cataluña fell well below the average YoY growth rate for Spain as a whole, which amounted to 11% in September. That increase – below the rate recorded in August, of 16% – was driven by Castilla-La Mancha (47%), Murcia (27%) and Extremadura (24.2%), which experienced the highest rises. Unlike Cataluña, the other economically powerful regions, such as Madrid (11.4%), Valencia (13.2%) and País Vasco (13.3%), were above the national average.

This data partially reflects the impact of the events that took place in September, with the approval by the Parlament of the so-called disconnection laws. But given that most operations are negotiated several weeks in advance, Manuel Gandarias, CEO of Civislend, indicates that the deceleration was due primarily to “expectations” – many people postponed their purchases as a precaution, in case the situation deteriorated, which is what ended up happening.

This explains why Cataluña has gone from being one of the drivers of house sales in Spain to bringing up the rear of the ranking. In this way, in May, the region came in above the national average, with an increase of more than 30%. In June and July, the first signs of the deterioration could be seen, when the rate stood at around 17%, broadly in line with the rest of the country. But in August, it decreased below the national average (7.4% vs. 16%), and that decrease was further strengthened by the data published yesterday. In absolute terms, it means 6,720 operations were recorded in August, 7,020 in July and 7,039 in June; in contrast with 6,146 in September (…).

The growth recorded in Cataluña during the month of September was distributed unequally by province (…). The worst hit was Girona, which saw house sales decrease by -2.9% in September. Barcelona and Tarragona saw very limited rates of growth, with 1.9% and 4%, respectively, whilst the best figures were seen in Lleida, with a rise in house sales of 16.3% (…).

The negative trend indicated by this data will probably be made worse when the indicators relating to the next few months are revealed, as they will reflect the impact of the events that took place after the illegal referendum on 1 October. According to José Antonio Pérez, Professor of the Real Estate Department at IPE, the greatest effect is being felt “in investments from overseas”, which have reacted in the face of the legal uncertainty. Gandarias said that the situation will also have its impact on operations involving families, given that those who have decided to buy a home “will probably wait now until after the (regional) elections”.

The “independentista” crisis is also affecting property prices. According to a report published last week by Fotocasa, the price of housing in Cataluña slowed down its rate of growth from 10.6% in September to 6.1% in October.

Original story: Expansión (by Ignacio Bolea)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Atlético De Madrid Wants To Sell Operación Calderón Land For €3,300/m2

10 November 2017 – Cinco Días

Atlético de Madrid is looking to shake up the real estate sector with a record-breaking operation. The club is heating up the housing market with an operation to sell the plots on the site of its former Vicente Calderón stadium, through which it wants to achieve much higher prices than are currently being paid for land in the surrounding area.

The club, chaired by Enrique Cerezo and controlled by Miguel Ángel Gil, has engaged the consultancy firm CBRE to sell the plots of land, and the first round of offers have already been received. Atlético has already been sounding out potential buyers regarding a land asking price of €3,300/m2, according to four companies in the real estate sector, which would represent a record in this part of the Spanish capital.

That high land value would mean that the houses built on the site would have to be sold for approximately €6,000/m2, according to the calculations performed by several sources. That figure is equivalent to other more expensive areas in the capital and represents almost twice the current sales price of new build homes in the district of Arganzuela, where the stadium is located. According to the appraisal company Tinsa, new homes in this neighbourhood are currently being sold for prices ranging between €3,000/m2 and €4,000/m2, based on data as at 2017.

Specifically, Atlético is selling three plots of land, which have a total surface area of 63,076 m2, of which 57,094 m2 corresponds to residential use and the remaining 5,892 m2 to commercial use. Around 500 homes are expected to be built on the site. If the club manages to find a buyer willing to pay €3,300/m2, it will receive proceeds of €210 million. If the price ends up being €3,000/m2, the purchaser will have to spend around €190 million.

This urban planning operation is linked to the club’s change of stadium after it moved this season from its former pitch next to the Manzanares River to the new Wanda Metropolitan (…). Moreover, the football team needs to sell these plots to repay Inbursa – owned by the magnate Carlos Slim – for a €160 million loan that it was granted to build its new stadium.

The so-called Operación Mahou-Calderón, which also includes the adjacent plots on the site of the former brewery headquarters- but which are not included in the sale now being undertaken by Atlético – was approved by the municipal plenary in September. The buildability of that environment has decreased from 175,000 m2 to 147,000 m2 with respect to Ana Botella’s plan dated 2014.

Sources in the sector explain that CBRE has already received at least five offers during the first phase of the process, which is expected to close at the beginning of 2018. For the time being, it is not known whether any of these bids exceeds the figure of €3,000/m2 that Atleti is looking for (…).

Sources at the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank calculate that the price of land in this neighbourhood amounts to a maximum of between €2,400/m2 and €2,800/m2. They explain that recent similar purchases in the district of Arganzuela, in the Méndez Álvaro area, for example, were closed for a price of between €2,000/m2 and €2,220/m2.

However, some experts in the residential market do believe that the €3,000/m2 threshold may be broken due to the high purchase pressure currently in play, primarily due to interest from international funds. They also consider that these plots are very attractive, located as they are in the Madrid Río area, and so they expect the degree of interest in them to be high.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, in the Usera area, Neinor Homes is marketing quite an exclusive development called Riverside at prices that exceed €4,000/m2, according to the portal Fotocasa, and the penthouses are going for €6,000/m2.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: House Sales Rose By 16% YoY In August To 41,282

11 October 2017 – Expansión

House sales rose by 16% in August with respect to the same month in 2016, to reach 41,282 operations, according to Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE). With the YoY increase in August, the volume of house sales recorded four consecutive months of increases.

In inter-monthly terms (August vs July), the sale of homes rose by 6.3%, its second highest increase in a month of August for the last five years. Although the increase in August was slightly lower than that recorded in July (16.8%), the number of house sales (41,282) recorded its third-highest figure since February 2011, exceeded only by May and June, when more than 44,000 sales were closed.

Transactions involving second-hand homes increased by 14.9% in August compared to the same month in 2016, to reach a total of 33,886, whilst the sale of new builds rose by 21.3% in YoY terms, to 7,396 transactions. “The residential market is showing clear signs of growth thanks to the strong performance of the economy, the consolidation of the mortgage market and the return of confidence to a sector that has been reviled for years and that is now starting to arouse interest again”, explains Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa.

Based on data for August from INE, Toribio highlights the progress in the new build segment, which grew by 21.3% in YoY terms compared with 14.9% in the second-hand market. “The recovery of the real estate market has brought with it an increase in the volume of off-plan purchases and property developer activity, which will serve to alleviate the shortage in the supply of new homes, which is becoming more evident in large cities”, she added. “In 2017, new build homes will recover some of the limelight lost during nine years of consecutive decreases”.

90.6% of the homes sold during the eighth month of the year were private and 9.4% were subsidised social housing properties. The sale of private homes rose by 16.6% in YoY terms in August, to reach 37,412 transactions, whilst operations involving social housing properties rose by 10.2%, to 3,870 transactions.

The highest volumes of house sales for every 100,000 inhabitants were recorded in the Community of Valencia (163), the Balearic Islands (152) and Andalucía (125). Andalucía was the region where the most house sales were registered during the eighth month of the year, with 8,224 sales, followed by Cataluña (6,720) and the Community of Valencia (6,370). The regions that recorded the fewest number of house sales were La Rioja (262), Navarra (477) and Cantabria (507).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Perils Of The “Shared Flat Generation”

2 October 2017 – El Periódico

Sharing a flat is no longer the exclusive domain of students. First, the economic crisis and now, soaring rental prices, with Barcelona leading the way, are forcing more and more citizens to rent a room (rather than an entire home). According to the recent annual shared flat report from Idealista.com, demand for rooms for rent in Spain rose by 78.1% during the first six months of this year. The queues of the “shared flat generation” are continuing to grow.

The profile of people sharing flats has changed. “Traditionally, they were students, but now there are increasingly more qualified professionals”, says Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa. Renting a home, not to mention buying one, falls outside of the economic reach of many citizens in the context of the exit from the crisis and the accelerated genesis of a new real estate bubble.

“There has been a change in mentality. Before the crisis, renting was not an option. But now it is the most flexible alternative in a changing world”, adds Toribio. In Spain, the average age of the “shared flat generation” is 29 years. They are young people, who essentially come from middle and middle-upper social classes, living in regional capitals and large cities. 81% of flat sharers are aged between 18 and 34 years and they tend to share with 2 people on average.

Such is the case, for example, of Nelson Bisbal (pictured above, left), a 31-year old engineer who lives in El Eixample, Barcelona. “I share a flat with two other people. Living by yourself is not feasible nowadays”, he says. Nelson and his flatmates pay just over €800 (per month) between the three of them. “If I had a flat to myself, I would have to give up other things. Very few of my friends live by themselves”. Nelson spends 25% of his salary on his monthly rental payments (…).

According to Sergio Nasarre, Professor of Civil Law and Director of the UNESCO Housing Project at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) (…), one of the parties responsible for this “cohousing” phenomenon are the tourist home platforms. “Airbnb, for example, has made it more profitable to rent a home to a foreign visitor than to a resident of the city. People now have no choice but to go and live in rooms rather than rent out entire homes”, he adds.

Although most of the people who share homes are in their 20s and 30s, there is also another reality: that of middle-aged people who are forced to share a home. Contributing factors include, to a large extent, the high level of unemployment and the loss of purchasing power as a result of price rises and salary decreases.

Black market rents

(…). Obtaining figures about how many people share homes is difficult given that many renters sublet rooms. According to the group of Technicians at the Ministry of Finance (Gestha), 41.4% of rents in Spain are black market arrangements (…).

Paying for a room, rather than for a flat, excludes tenants from the protections offered by the Urban Letting Law (LAU). Many people sublet so that they can afford to live or pay the rent, but many others do it to make a profit (…).

“During the real estate boom, a phenomenon emerged involving the overcrowding of homes with immigrants. They rented rooms in shifts”, says Nasarre. The situation in Barcelona at the moment (which is the city with the highest rental prices in Spain) is not unique; cities like Paris and London are suffering from even more extreme situations, he says.

This housing expert proposes, amongst other measures, administrative controls and the strengthening of tenants’ rights. He also opts for “decentralisation”. “All of the major universities, hospitals, are in Barcelona. Decentralising certain services would strengthen territorial cohesion”.

Original story: El Periódico (by Beatriz Pérez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Activity Abounds In Spain’s Second-Hand Home Market

13 September 2017 – El Confidencial

Second-hand homes are the undisputed star of the Spanish residential market. Despite the fact that the volume of transactions involving second-hand homes plummeted following the burst of the real estate bubble, they now account for 8 of every 10 sales closed in Spain. In addition, more second-hand homes were sold during the first seven months of this year than between January and July 2008. The renewed appetite for these types of homes has resulted in an upwards rally in prices. In fact, over the last year, prices registered their highest increase for the last 10 years.

There are several factors behind this furore. Even though the construction of new properties has grown in recent months, it is not sufficiently voluminous to meet demand, which, having overcome the crisis and after emerging from its lethargy, now wants to purchase. Moreover, the gap in prices between both types of homes (new and second-hand) has led many buyers – including investors – to opt for second-hand homes.

According to data from the notaries, the square metre of a new build home is €569/m2 more expensive, on average, than of a second-hand dwelling. At the national level in June, the average price of a second-hand home amounted to €1,478/m2, whereas that of a new build residence stood at €2,047/m2 (…).

The sale of second-hand homes hit rock bottom in 2012 when 160,000 units were sold, compared with almost 450,000 in 2007. Nevertheless, with the exception of 2009 and 2010, more second-hand homes are always sold than new builds. In 2008, the first year after the bubble burst, the figures about equal. But, a definitive gap emerged again in 2015, to the extent that last year, 8 out of every 10 homes sold in Spain were second-hand.

Prices rise by 5% in one year

This buyer appetite has had an immediate impact on prices. During the month of August, prices rose by 4.9%, the greatest YoY increase in the last 10 years. As such, the average price per square metre now amounts to €1,708/m2, according to data from Fotocasa (…).

Once again, the behaviour has been very irregular throughout the length and breadth of Spain. There were significant increases in the Balearic Islands (16.2%) and Cataluña (11.6%), the only autonomous regions that saw prices rise by more than 10%. They were followed by price rises in the Canary Islands (5.6%), Andalucía (5.4%), Castilla-La Mancha (4.7%), Madrid (4.2%) and Extremadura (3%).

Nevertheless, we should not forget that the decrease in house prices from their peaks is still very significant across the vast majority of the country. The average price of second-hand homes in Spain has recorded a cumulative decrease of 42.2% since the peak of April 2007 (€2,952/m2). In this sense, 11 autonomous regions still record cumulative decreases of more than 40% compared to the maximum prices recorded nine years ago. They are led by La Rioja (-56.8%), and followed by Navarra (-53.8%), Aragón (-51.4%), Castilla-La Mancha (-51.3%), Murcia (-49.4%), Asturias (-46.8%), the Community of Valencia (-45.7%), Cantabria (-43.1%), Cataluña (-42.1%), Madrid (-40.9%) and Extremadura (-40.6%).

“Meanwhile, the housing market is registering levels of activity that we have not seen for 10 years, as a result of the improvement in the economy and employment, as well as of a return of confidence to the sector (…)”, explains Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa. Nevertheless, Toribio points out that “despite the chunky growth in the number of mortgages, transactions and prices, the sector is still at much lower levels than during the golden years” (…).

General increases in Madrid and Barcelona

Madrid and Barcelona, two of the most active markets from a real estate perspective are by no means unaffected by the rise in the prices of second-hand properties. Prices rose in 19 of the Spanish capital’s 21 districts in August (…). In terms of the most expensive and cheapest districts, Salamanca is the most expensive for buying a home, with a price of €4,923/m2. It is followed by Chamberí (€4,681/m2), Centro (€4,453/m2) and Chamartín (€4,448 /m2). At the opposite end of the spectrum, Villaverde is the most affordable district for buying a second-hand home, with an average price of €1,518/m2.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, house prices rose in seven of the 10 districts analysed by Fotocasa in August (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Price Rises Continue To Rock Spain’s Rental Home Sector

6 June 2017 – El Mundo

The housing market is trembling and not, like in the past, because of the high degree of sale and purchase activity. The residential sector in Spain is facing an unprecedented phenomenon: a boom (not a bubble) in the rental sector. In a short space of time, this residential regime has gone from being almost residual to accounting for more than 20% of the housing market. And that figure is rising. This leap is driving up prices, significantly. Above all in Madrid and Barcelona.

According to the experts, a change in the mentality of young people and employment mobility are the main factors driving this formula for accessing a home. (…).

Not since the 1960s has the percentage of rental properties been so high in Spain, but, despite the increase, the figure is still well below the levels seen in other European countries – which reach 50% in some places – although it is moving closer to the Eurozone average – 30%. (…).

The cornerstone of this growth in rental properties has been the spectacular boom in demand, which has come up against an unprofessionalised sector, with minimal supply owned, primarily, by individuals. The real estate portal Fotocasa now registers more searches for property rentals than it does for property purchases. The result of this imbalance? An earthquake in terms of prices. How long will this earthquake last? Where are its epicentres? What intensity will it reach? What measures should be taken to soften its effects? (…).

The latest evidence of the rental earthquake has come in the form of the Fotocasa’s price statistics for April, which show that the average rent in Spain rose by 10.2% in one year, to €8.04/m2/month. That cost takes the market back to its 2011 levels but it is still well below (-20.7%) the peaks of 2007 (€10.12/m2/month). (…).

“It is a question of supply and demand”, said Economist and Director of the Masters in Real Estate Development and Management Advisory at the Universidad de Barcelona (UB), Gonzalo Bernardos. “Demand is increasing due to the recovery. There are more jobs and, therefore, more families and young people as potential tenants. By contrast, the supply is decreasing (…)”. In his opinion, this situation will change when the banks start lending again en masse to families who earn less than €2,500/month. “From then on, maybe from 2018 onwards, the rental sector will suffer, as demand will transfer to the purchase market”, he said. (…).

Fotocasa has prepared a seismic map of the rental market. It reveals the evolution of rental prices by autonomous region. Prices decreased in YoY terms in Galicia only (in April) (by -0.7%), whilst they rose in all of the other regions, with marked rises in Cataluña (17%), Madrid and the Balearic Islands (12.1% in both). Together with the Canary Islands (11.9%), these regions are undoubtedly the large epicentres of the increase in rental prices.

“The increase in rental prices is happening across the whole country, but the strong average increase is due to Cataluña and Madrid”, said Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa. “According to our Real Estate Index report for 2016-2017, these two regions account for 43% of the activity relating to demand”, she said.

In absolute terms, the most expensive rental prices are also in Cataluña, where the price per m2 stands at €11.96/month. In other words, a typical apartment measuring 90 m2 costs around €1,075/month. Next in the ranking, and still in the double digits, are Madrid (€11.36/m2/month), País Vasco (€10.59/m2/month) and Baleares (€10.05/m2/month). These values are even higher in the main municipalities.

Barcelona – the great tip of the iceberg

(…). In the city of Barcelona, the average rental price amounts to €15.14/m2/month. That amount is higher than the figures registered in Sant Cugat del Vallés (€13.61/m2/month) and Castelldefels (€13.58/m2/month), the next two most expensive towns for rental properties in Spain. In Madrid and San Sebastian, rental prices stand at €12.81/m2/month and €11.96/m2/month, respectively. (…).

The analyst at Fotocasa thinks that rental prices will regulate themselves over time. “We are still well below the peaks. The market is normalising”, she concludes. Meanwhile, Bernardos predicts that the rate of growth in rental prices will gradually calm down in Barcelona and Madrid. He forecasts price rises of 12%, 9% and 5%-6% over the next three years in the capital and of 8%, 5% and 3%-4% in Barcelona. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Jorge Salido Cobo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

House Prices Forecast To Rise By 5% In 2017

6 June 2017 – Expansión

Growth / The sharp fall in house prices during the crisis years, combined with the pent-up demand, the reactivation of mortgage lending and the recovery of the Spanish economy means that property developers, appraisal companies, real estate companies, funds and consultants alike are all predicting fresh rises in house prices this year. Nevertheless, the professionals stress that the growth in prices will vary by area, with Madrid and Barcelona leading the recovery.

In 2016, house prices rose by 4.7% in Spain on average, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). That growth rate was the highest since the burst of the real estate bubble, a decade ago. And the experts believe that that figure will not only be repeated in 2017, it will actually be bettered. “According to CBRE’s Trend Barometer which reflects the views of the 100 most senior directors in the real estate sector, one out of every two surveyed believe that house prices will grow by between 3% and 6% in 2017 at the national level, whereas only 21% shared that optimism in 2016. It is the first time since the start of the crisis that the experts are forecasting a general rise in house prices in Spain”, explained Adolfo Ramírez Escudero, President, CBRE Spain. (…).

According to the majority of the experts, the increase will amount to around 5% this year…(…).

Although all of the experts are optimistic about the overall trend in prices, several are quick to point out that this increase will vary by region. “The recovery in prices is proving selective and heterogeneous. Although prices are soaring in certain places, they have still not bottomed out in other markets”, said Pedro Soria, at Tinsa.

“Salaries have not risen to a level that makes us think that prices are going to soar, although there are some exceptions in specific areas of the large regional capitals where we have detected strong demand”, said David Martínez, CEO at Aedas Homes.

By area, Madrid and Barcelona account for the best forecasts in terms of price rises. (…).

Similarly, in addition to the two major cities, the positive outlook is starting to spread to new areas. “Prices are on the rise primarily in the major capitals and on the islands”, said Sandra Daza, at Gesvalt.

The improvements in the macroeconomic variables mean that the good feelings about the housing market this year are also expected to have an impact over the coming years. “House prices are going to continue to rise over the next few years. This year, we expect to see an average rise of around 5%, but the shortage of buildable land in those areas where demand exists means that we can expect to see higher rates of growth in the future”, said Javier de Oro, at Aliseda, the real estate arm of Banco Popular.

In this sense, and despite the price rises that have been seen in recent quarters, the experts point out that we are still a long way from the figures seen before the burst of the bubble. “We are entering a period of growth, which may last three or four years. It is true that there are cycles, but I don’t think that we’ll ever see the price decreases of the past again”, said Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, President of the property developer Vía Célere and of the sector organisations Asprima and APCE. (…).

Whilst in the case of new homes, the upward trend in prices seems clear, in the case of second-hand properties, a recovery is also being seen but at a slower pace. “So far this year, our real estate index has been registering very slight YoY decreases, of just a few tenths of a percentage point, which shows us that second-hand house prices in Spain are stabilising”, said Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Buy-To-Let Properties Generate Returns Of 10%+ In Spain’s Large Cities

30 May 2017 – Expansión

Buy to let / The gross annual return from buying a home and putting it up for rent amounted to 4.3% in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Bank of Spain. If we add to that the fact that the price per square metre rose more sharply than during the previous quarter, then the total return exceeds 9%. And the equivalent figures are in the double digits in the largest provincial capitals.

After seven years of crisis and three years of recovery, investment in housing is now enjoying a new golden age. Without the excesses of yesteryear and with the lesson of the bubble very much learned, professionals and individuals alike have set their sights on the residential sector once again as the generator of profits. (…).

The major indicator in the sector nowadays is not so much house prices – which are still important – but rather returns. In the main Spanish provincial capitals, the average gross yield from rental homes is 5.93%, according to a study of the yield on rental homes in 2017, compiled by Invermax. (…).

That 5.93% is higher than the overall average for Spain, which amounted to 4.3% in the first quarter of the year, according to the Bank of Spain. If to this return, we add capital gains, the average gross rate of return per annum increases to more than 10% in Spain. To calculate the return from capital gains, the Bank of Spain uses house price data from INE, which will be published on 8 June. But, taking into account the registrars’ statistics, which revealed an increase of 7.7%, the analysts are convinced that the average return, including capital gains, now exceeds 9%. Moreover, in the large cities, these figures are comfortably in the double digits. For example, the annual return in Barcelona is 17.7% and in Madrid, it is 13.4%, if we combine Invermax’s yield data by city with the local prices published by Tinsa. (…).

The economic environment “is completely favouring the yields on these kinds of assets…” said Jesús Martí, author of the report compiled by Invermax, a company that belongs to the Enacom group. “The reasons driving the increase in the gross rental yield are….the fact that house prices in Spain’s major cities have bottomed out, demand is continuing to rise, especially for rental properties…”. Also, unemployment rates in the provincial capitals stand at around 10% and there is a persistent shortage of available homes for rent. (…).

According to Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa, “The rental market still has a lot of potential in Spain. The country mainly comprises homeowners, but consumers are gradually opening up to the rental culture, as a result of the economic, socio-demographic and employment changes that are happening across Spanish society”, she said. (…).

According to data from Fotocasa, the most profitable autonomous regions for buying a home and subsequently renting it out are Cataluña, Madrid, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, where yields amount to more than 6%. In some towns in Cataluña and Madrid, that percentage increases to 7% in certain areas and even to 8% in one district in the capital, specifically, Villaverde. (…).

And so we ask the million-dollar question once again: Is now a good time to buy a home and put it on the rental market to obtain returns? The general answer from the real estate experts is a resounding “Yes”, with increasingly less hesitation. However, the choice of investment (area, size, features and the level of demand for rental housing, amongst other factors) is fundamental.

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Demand For Rental Properties Rises & Prices Soar

29 May 2017 – Expansión

Rental homes have become the most profitable and successful option in the residential investment sector. 80% of owners who put a home up for rent last year managed to let it without any problem, a percentage that is much higher than those who wanted to sell their property, 33%, according to Fotocasa.

Three out of every ten Spaniards had a direct relationship with the property market in 2016, with the demand for rental housing constituting the activity with the most weight, according to the findings of the “Survey of the housing market in Spain 2016-2017″, published by Fotocasa this week.

“At the moment, demand for rental housing exceeds demand for buying properties: whilst 14% of the population participated in the rental market in 2016, only 10% of Spaniards participated in the purchase market; and the percentages of people looking for rental homes (5%) and to buy homes (6%) are very similar”, said Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa.

The strong growth in demand, coupled with the rigidity of the supply of rental homes, have led to blocks of unmet demand and important increases in prices over the last few months, according to the experts. In Spain, on average, rental prices have risen by 10% in the last year. That figure is higher in large cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, which account for approximately 50% of demand for domestic rental properties, according to Solvia.

“The two regions are where rental prices have grown by the most in the last year, specifically, by 17% in Cataluña and by 12% in Madrid”, said Toribio. The price per square metre of a rental property in Cataluña is €11.85/m2/month, whilst in Madrid, the price is €11.22/m2/month.

Rental prices have been growing continuously in these two areas of Spain for the last 34 months; meanwhile, they have been rising in Andalucía and Valencia for the last 27 months. The evolution of these cities is explained because they account for a higher supply of employment, which attracts young people, who are the main consumers of rental homes. The changes in the new generations have modified the real estate sector in Spain: 33% of people who are looking for a home choose a rental property, according to the Housing Observatory. In some areas such as Valencia, that percentage can exceed 50%. The profile of the people who prefer to rent are the so-called Millennials, a segment of the population that is going to continue to grow: they are expected to move out of home, generating a need for 520,000 rental homes over the next 3-5 years.

Original story: Expansión (by D. Esperanza and R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: House Sales Exceeded 40,000 In March

16 May 2017 – Cinco Días

Last week, Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) published data relating to house purchases in March, which revealed that the number of transactions recorded in the property registers amounted to 40,461 during the month. Such a high figure had not seen since February 2011, six years ago; it represents an increase of 26.9% with respect to the number recorded a year ago.

In general, and despite some apathy at the start of 2017, the fact is that March was a good month from the perspective of real estate activity, given that 168,448 properties changed hands, a figure that represents an increase of 17.7% with respect to the same period in 2016.

By type of property, INE highlighted that 89.8% of house sales involved free (unsubsidised) homes and 10.2% were social housing properties. Sales of the former increased by 27.6%, whilst sales of the latter rose by 21.5%.

In addition, 18.2% of the homes sold in March were new build properties and the remaining 81.8% were second-hand. One of the most noteworthy statistics is how month on month, the number of operations involving new build properties is beginning to show greater strength than in the past because the construction and sale of developments that were started two years ago when the market showed its first signs of having bottomed out, are now bearing fruit.

In this way, during March, the number of new build transactions increased by 21.2%, when not so long ago, they were recording negative figures, and the number of second-hand transactions consolidated themselves for another month with an improvement of 28.3% with respect to March 2016.

In the classification by autonomous region, INE’s statistics, which are prepared using data from the property registers, revealed that house sales grew in every autonomous region, with the exception of the Canary Islands, where they decreased by 3.5% YoY. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the increase in the volume of transactions exceeded 30% in 10 of Spain’s autonomous regions. (…).

The reactions from the real estate portals to this data were not as expected. Fernando Encinar, Head of Research at Idealista, explained that “the data from the month of March exceeded 40,000 operations, which represents a milestone in terms of the normalisation of the market. Although this process is happening at two speeds, the fact that more transactions were signed in March than a year ago in every autonomous region (with the exception of the Canary Islands) is a sign that the markets are moving closer to their natural equilibrium”.

Meanwhile, Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at Fotocasa, said that (…) “the more than 40,000 transactions that were closed in March brings us back to the levels of 2011 and shows that the pace that is building in the sector. This improvement is having an effect on prices, which have been recording YoY increases for seven consecutive months”. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake