Tag: Gesvalt

Growth of Socimis Expected to Fall by Half in 2020 from High in 2019

2 December 2019 – The director of Business Development at Gesvalt, Luis Martín Guiraldo, believes that approximately 19 new socimis will be created in 2019, up from 15 last year. That figure, however, is expected to fall by half in 2020.

The future of the investment vehicle has become somewhat less certain with the formation of a left-leaning government coalition by the PSOE and Podemos political parties. In his report, Mr Guiraldo notes how concentrated investments by socimis are in Madrid and  Barcelona, with only two listed socimis based in other cities (Valencia and Marbella). Total investments follow a similar pattern, with small groups of foreign investors behind the majority of the firms. Government regulators are now expected to take a closer look at the market, dampening the enthusiasm for the sector.

Original Story: Idealista – Carlos Lospitao

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Approval Granted for Socimi Arrienda Rental’s Debut on the MAB

21 December 2018 – La Vanguardia

The Coordination and Incorporations Committee of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) has issued a favourable report ahead of the stock market debut of Arrienda Rental Properties Socimi, with a reference value of €2.74 per share, after the company was valued at €56.4 million.

The MAB has reported that the stock trading code for Arrienda Rental will be YARP and that it will be governed by the fixing system, with prices being fixed twice in each session, at 12 noon and 16h.

Arrienda Rental is a real estate company that has adopted the Socimi framework and which is dedicated to the acquisition and development of urban properties for their rental.

The Socimi owns 239 assets, all of which are located in the Community of Madrid: 2 hotels (Clement Barajas and Täch), 3 plots of land, 4 offices, 18 retail premises, 40 homes and 172 garages.

Before its stock market debut, the Socimi had 51 shareholders, including Francisco García Rubio, who owns 21% of the capital.

Arrienda Rental has 4 managing directors who are also owners, namely: José García Sánchez, Luis Miguel Gutiérrez Abella, Víctor García Rodríguez and Juan Francisco García Muñoz.

Arrienda’s valuation has been performed by the appraisal company Gesvalt.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gesvalt: House Prices Rise by 9% In Q2 2018

5 July 2018 – Eje Prime

House prices are continuing to rise in Spain. To buy a home, you now need to spend €1,373 per square metre, up by 9% compared to the end of the second quarter of 2017. Nevertheless, the rise is not equal across all cities. In fact, the gap between towns is continuing to grow, with differences of more than €1,000/m2, according to Gesvalt.

“The largest price deviations arise between those provinces with most services and those with least tourist appeal and a cumulative oversupply”, says the consultancy firm. Such is the case of Jaén, Teruel, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cuenca and Cáceres, where unitary values do not even reach €850/m2.

By contrast, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and the Balearic Islands continue to top of the ranking, with average prices of more than €2,000/m2. Madrid has also joined the €2,000/m2 club again, exceeding the threshold for the first time in recent years.

By autonomous region, all have recorded increases in their average prices, with the exception of Andalucía and La Rioja, where prices have decreased and País Vasco, where prices have remained stable.

The drivers of the rise in house prices have been Aragón, the Balearic Islands, Cataluña, the Community of Valencia and Madrid, with double-digit increases in all cases.

Meanwhile, the rental market is also maintaining its upward trend, with Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and Madrid leading the ranking of the most expensive cities. In all three cases, rental prices comfortably exceed €14/m2/month, whilst in Jaén, Ávila, Cáceres and Ciudad Real, they average less than €4.3/m2/month.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gesvalt: House Prices Will Grow by 5%-7% in Spain in 2018

15 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Gesvalt predicts that house prices will continue to rise this year. According to Sandra Daza, the Director General of the company, the price of residential properties in Spain will grow by between 5% and 7% this year in the main cities across the country. “We are not laying the foundations for a new real estate bubble, sales are going to continue to grow and prices will maintain their upward trend”, explained the executive in the framework of Inmonext.

The surveyor explained that, in 2017, “more than half a million homes were sold, the economy grew by more than the European average, minimum interest rates continued to encourage the diversification of investment portfolios and last year, €14 billion was invested in property, up by 45% compared to a year earlier”. “We can say, without fear of being wrong, that Spain is an interesting market for investment”, she said at the event organised by Idealista.

Although she acknowledged that the lack of political stability is affecting the sector, she also argued that the appetite from investors for domestic assets is still very high.

In some sectors, such as offices, there is a lack of high-quality products, whilst in other sectors, such as shopping centres and logistics, there are opportunities. She regards the latter as “the sweetheart of the market”.

Daza, who also agrees with other industry experts on the need for the Administration to put more land on the market, also sees “clear potential” for alternative assets (student halls of residence, nursing homes), whose main features are their high profitability and support from demographic factors.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Large Investors Manage Only c. 3% of Spain’s Rental Homes

28 May 2018 – Cinco Días

In recent months, a new name has been added to the list of alleged culprits to blame for the fact that rental prices in large cities are rising at a dangerously accelerated pace – they increased by between 10% and 18% last year. They are what the experts call the large owners of rental home portfolios. And are otherwise known as Socimis, investment funds, servicers and, to a much lesser extent, public companies.

But, how many homes are we talking about (…)? And what percentage do they represent over the total stock of rental homes? Taking into account that no official figures are compiled for the number of rental homes in Spain, and that we only talk about percentages of the total number of households (…) the truth is that the task seems complicated.

Nevertheless, according to the calculations performed by Cinco Días and after having requested data from the large funds, the resulting figure is so small, both in absolute and relative terms, that it seems to have almost no or limited influence on the evolution of rental prices. The figures compiled by CBRE reveal a balance that ranges between 2% and 4% of the total stock of rental homes. “It is possible that they have an influence at the local level in areas where more homes managed by those kinds of companies are concentrated, but it is clear that they cannot be blamed for what is happening to rental prices”, explains Sandra Daza, Director General at Gesvalt.

Thus, the statistics compiled by the Government and Eurostat reveal that approximately 22% of Spanish households live in rental properties, a figure that has increased considerably from 15% before the outbreak of the crisis (…).

Multiple factors

In this way, if we take as the reference the most recent figure for the number of households during the first quarter of this year, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA), of the 18.55 million households in Spain, 4.07 million were rental homes.

Of that volume of household-homes, a total of 114,000 homes are in the hands of the 15 largest investors, which together account for just 2.8% of the total stock of rental homes (…).

As Samuel Población, the National Director of Residential and Land at CBRE, explains, the increase in this regime of tenure over buying is driven by several factors. The new labour market, with more instability and lower salaries, is forcing many households to rent, plus all the demand that was expelled from purchasing during the crisis (…).

This increase in demand has not been accompanied by a parallel rise in the supply to the same extent and that is what is causing most of the tension in terms of rental prices, together with the effect of tourist apartments in certain neighbourhoods of large cities and higher visitor numbers. Not even the fact that one out of every five homes purchased is destined for rent to make the investment profitable has managed to generate more homes for rent.

“The current rise is a consequence of the large gap between demand and supply”, says Wolfgang Beck, CEO of the Socimi Testa Residencial, one of the largest owners of this kind of asset (…).

“It does not make sense to attribute the rise in rental prices to the funds. They have a long-term focus and are actually responsible for increasing the stock of rental homes on the market”, says Javier Rodríguez Heredia, Head of the Residential team at the housing manager Azora.

“Establishing regulations that provide certainty for institutional investors to make it attractive for them to enter the sector would result in the creation of a rental home stock commensurate with the needs of the country”, he said (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro & Alfonso Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimi AP67 Debuts on the MAB with Aim of Doubling its Portfolio

8 May 2018 – Eje Prime

AP67 rang the bell on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) for the first time this morning. The Socimi debuted on the stock market with a preliminary share price of €6.65, which corresponds to an overall company valuation of €34 million. The aim of the company is to double its portfolio over the next few years through the purchase of new assets.

The real estate investment company is the sixth Socimi to make its debut on the MAB so far this year, which further strengthens the presence of this type of player in the Spanish real estate sector. In the case of AP67, the company has debuted with a portfolio worth €46.5 million comprising assets of all kinds located in Leganés (Madrid).

Gesvalt has acted as the external advisor to the operation, whilst Armabex has worked as the registered advisor for the stock market debut of the company, which is owned by Álvaro Rubio Garzón and Francisco Escudero López.

The Socimi owns small- and medium-sized plots of urban land for residential use, as well as commercial premises, parking lots and industrial land. In addition to the new purchases that it plans to make, the company aspires to “continue to generate returns of more than 8%”, according to its president, Álvaro Rubio.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimi Lists its €46-Million Portfolio of Homes and Land in Madrid

27 April 2018

The countdown has started for Spain’s stock exchange to become home to a new real estate investment company listing. AP67 has received the approval to start trading on the Mercado Alternativo Bursátil (MAB).

Although the exact date of the listing is still unknown, the socimi will debut at a price of 6.65 euros per share and a market value of about 34 million euros.

The vehicle is specialised in the residential sector and has residential buildings, one residential plot of land, two industrial plots of land and several commercial premises. All the assets are located in the municipality of Leganés (Madrid) and have a market value of €46.5 million, according to calculations by the appraiser Gesvalt.

The two most valuable assets in its portfolio are a residential building and a housing development that is currently under construction: between them, they total 25.8 million euros, more than half of the total.

There are several major shareholders behind the vehicle: the minority interests that the MAB requires for a listing, as well as the architects Álvaro Rubio Garzón and Francisco Escudero López, who control more than 90% of the capital. According to the document published by the MAB, both created a property management company in 2001, based on real estate development for rental in the area of Leganés, “specifically in the main streets of the urban centre, in locations near the Universidad Carlos III and industrial property in the suburbs.”

AP67 will be added to the fifty-one socimis that are already present in the MAB and to the sector’s main players, which are on the Ibex 35 and the continuous market: Merlin Properties, Colonial, Axiare, Hispania and Lar. In its debut, the company will be advised by the registered adviser Armabex. The Renta 4 bank will act as a liquidity provider.

Original Story: Idealista

Photo: Gtres

Translation: Richard Turner

 

Gesvalt Buys Inmoseguros from Dunas Capital

24 January 2018 – Eje Prime

Gesvalt has started 2018 by closing a corporate operation. Today, the leading player the market for consulting and asset valuations in the real estate, financial and industrial sectors, announced the purchase of the appraisal company ‘Grupo Inmoseguros Servicios Inmobiliarios’ from Dunas Capital.

Following this operation, Gesvalt hopes to double its turnover in the asset valuation market for the insurance sector, securing a market share of 10%. That would position the company as the leader in the sector for that industry.

This acquisition forms part of Gesvalt’s growth strategy, through which it is seeking to consolidate its place in growing sectors, such as insurance. According to various estimates, the insurance companies in Spain currently own real estate assets worth approximately €10 billion (according to data from the General Directorate of Insurance), which need to be valued every year. Inmoseguros Tasación valued assets worth more than €1 billion in 2017.

Gesvalt closed 2017 with turnover of €20.5 million, which represents an increase of around 30% with respect to 2016. Last year, and as a result of the evolution of its business, the company took a step forward in its internationalisation plans, establishing its own structure in Lisbon to serve the Portuguese market. The group has national coverage in Spain with fifteen offices, as well as an international presence in fourteen countries and 40 cities.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Experts: Foreign Investors will Continue to Back the Spanish RE Sector in 2018

11 January 2018 – Expansión

The experts believe that the residential sector is going to be the main protagonist of 2018, in terms of both development and investment. The banks are expected to continue their balance sheet clean-ups with more portfolio sales.

The real estate sector is expected to continue to constitute a mainstay of the Spanish economy in 2018 thanks to the growth of residential property development and the commitment from international investors to Spanish property as a safe haven for their investments, according to the experts consulted by Expansión.

For Adolfo Ramírez-Escudero, President of CBRE España, property developers will be some of the most dynamic investors in 2018. “Last year, they underwent an expansionary cycle and, through specialisation and the sophistication of their product, they will continue to increase their prominence in the sector”, he explains.

The CEO of JLL España, Enrique Losantos, forecasts that 2018 will maintain the positive rhythm of recent years and that figures will remain in line with 2017, with a total investment volume of around €13 billion. Losantos also expects that portfolio operations, which were the major stars of 2017, thanks to the sale of assets by Banco Popular and BBVA, will continue to strengthen their position in 2018 (…).

Rents

For Santiago Aguirre, President of the Board of Directors of Savills Aguirre Newman, “we are entering a year of consolidation in terms of the upward cycle that we have been immersed in since 2014. Several segments, such as offices and logistics, have reached maximum leasing levels, nevertheless, we still see potential for rents to reach the maximum levels seen in the previous cycle”.

In terms of investment in tertiary assets, Oriol Barrachina, CEO at Cushman & Wakefield, explains that there is a perception that there will be more liquidity than product, despite caution being erred in light of the local and international uncertainty. “The main difference with respect to the last two years is that one group of buyers, the Socimis, are now also going to be selling assets. For years, they have purchased lots of assets and after generating value from them, they are going to put them up for sale, a fact that will also help to bridge the gap between supply and demand”, adds Barrachina.

Sandra Daza, Director General at Gesvalt, thinks that this year those investors who entered the cycle during the opportunistic period, between 2013 and 2015, will be replaced by long-term investors, such as insurance companies and pension funds.

In terms of trends, Mikel Echavarren, CEO at Irea, considers that residential development will continue to generate news this year, both in terms of land transactions, as well as price rises and the recovery of secondary markets (…).

Humphrey White, Director General at Knight Frank, highlights that Spain is currently at the beginning of an expansion period, with forecast demand of between 120,000 and 150,000 new homes per year, even though it closed 2017 with just 47,500 new home transactions (…).

No sign of a bubble

White considers that the growth in the sector in Spain rests on “some very firm foundations in terms of the law of supply and demand, whereby moving firmly away from a possible real estate bubble”.

For Gonzalo Gallego, Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte, buildable land will be one of the major challenges in the property development sector.

In terms of the rental market, Ramírez-Escudero explains that in 2018, we will see “quite a lot” of activity in the market from institutional investors backing rental homes. Over the last decade, the number of rental homes has increased significantly to reach 22.5%. Nevertheless, Spain still has major potential given that the average in the EU is 33% (…).

Javier López-Torres, Partner in Real Estate at KPMG, agrees. He considers that the rental segment will continue to gain weight due to the difficulties involved in accessing credit, mobility and cultural change (…).

Asset types

By sector, Thierry Bougeard, Director General at BNP Paribas Real Estate, says that demand for office space will continue its strong performance (seen in 2017), above all in Madrid, where leasing volumes are expected to increase to around 600,000 m2.

Meanwhile, in the logistics market, e-commerce will continue to be the main motor of demand, whilst in retail, many owners are betting on improving the quality of their centres, boosting leisure areas and the quality of them, with the aim of encouraging customers to stay longer, he explains.

The experts also agree in highlighting the high level of interest expected in alternative real estate assets, such as student halls and nursing homes.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

26 Spanish Real Estate Experts Share Their Predictions for 2018

6 January 2018 – Expansión

House prices will rise by more than 5% on average this year, with increases of more than 10% in the large cities. These gains will happen in a context of great dynamism in the market, in which house sales will grow by more than 10% to exceed 550,000 transactions. Rental prices will also continue to rise.

Those are just some of the predictions made by 26 real estate experts for Expansión.

Aguirre Newman: “House prices will grow by more than 10% in Madrid and Barcelona”.

“In our opinion, house prices are going to continue to rise in 2018, reaching average growth rates of 6%-7%”, says Juan Riestra (pictured above, top row, second from left), Director of the Residential Area at Aguirre Newman. “In Madrid, Barcelona and the coastal cities, we expect to see double-digit growth, driven by the supply of new homes that the property developers have announced, which will result in an even more intense increase in prices than seen in 2017 since new build home are typically more expensive than second-hand properties”, he adds (…).

Fotocasa: “New build homes will have a higher profile in 2018”.

“New build homes will have a higher profile in 2018, as we have already seen during the last quarter of 2017. And that, combined with the return of confidence to the housing market, will continue to push prices up if the economic context is maintained and the situation in Cataluña is resolved”, says Beatriz Toribio (pictured above, bottom row, second from left), from Fotocasa, who thinks that this effect will drive up house prices by more than 5%, but not reaching double-digits (…).

Universitat Pompreu Fabra: “Everything depends on the situation in Cataluña”.

“The upward momentum in the market will be accentuated in 2018 due to the improvement in the new build market since the homes that started to be built two years ago are now being sold”, said José García Montalvo (pictured above, top row, second from right), Professor of Economics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. “The major change is that new homes now account for 20% of the market, whilst before they represented 60%” (…). But “everything depends on the political uncertainty in Cataluña” (…).

Arcano: “Demand for investment in housing will continue to grow”.

“There is still a very significant imbalance in terms of demand, spurred on by the ECB’s policy and labour improvement, and a supply that is still restricted by the very low level of new house starts. Moreover, demand for housing as an investment will continue to grow. In this context, prices will rise by more than 5%”, says Ignacio de la Torre, Chief Economist at Arcano (…).

Notaries’ Centre for Statistical Information: “We expect house prices to increase by more than 5%”.

“On the basis of our analysis of the available information, we expect house prices to grow by between 5% and 10% in 2018 (…). Although we expect the housing stock to increase, due to greater investment and employment in construction in recent months, which may lead to price rises being contained, we also expect an increase in demand, given the dynamism of economic activity and the behaviour observed in the labour market”, says Milagros Avedillo, at the Notaries’ Centre for Statistical Information. In her opinion, the growth in mortgage loans will be single-digit.

Asprima: “Very few new homes will be built”.

“I don’t think that the volume of transactions will increase by more than 10% and the forecast for price growth will be below 5%”, says Carolina Roca, Vice-President of Asprima. “The most important macro-factor is income”, she laments. Therefore, prices cannot rise by much, in her opinion, although they will increase in certain areas. “New builds will recover in 2018, but not by much (…)”.

Tinsa: “The reduction in the unemployment rate will boost the market”.

“The residential market will record moderate price growth in 2018 (of between 3% and 4%), similar to that seen in 2017, with different speeds, depending on the region”, says Pedro Soria (pictured above, bottom row, second from right), Commercial Director at the appraisal company Tinsa. “The recovery will expand to more areas; the large capitals will continue to be the drivers, although the rate of growth will soften”, he adds. “The reduction in the unemployment rate and continuing investor interest, due to the prolongation of the low-interest rates, will increase house sales by between 10% and 15% (…).

Sociedad de Tasación: “New house prices will rise by 5.4%”.

“Applying our predictive model to the data from the Ministry of Development, we estimate that 14.1% more house sales will be completed in 2018 than in 2017 (…)”, says Consuelo Villanueva (pictured above, top row, far left), Director of Institutions and Key Accounts at Sociedad de Tasación. “The result (…) indicates growth of 5.4% in the price of new homes under construction for the average of provincial capitals in 2018 (…)”.

Gesvalt: “Mortgage lending will rise by around 15%”.

“According to the forecasts at Gesvalt, we predict moderate growth in second-hand house prices of around 5% at the national level, although there will be notable differences between provinces”, says Sandra Daza (pictured above, bottom row, far right), Director General at Gesvalt. (…). And by how much will mortgage lending grow? “By around 15% and there will be a slight increase in the number of mortgages that exceed 80% of the total property value”.

Foundation of Real Estate Research: “The political uncertainty will weigh down on Barcelona”.

The President of the Foundation of Real Estate Research, Julio Gil, believes that house prices will rise by “between 0% and 5% in 2018. “We will move to a three-speed market”, he thinks, referring to consolidated areas, cities in recovery and provinces with a surplus supply and/or limited demand. “And I think that Barcelona will perform less well than Madrid, weighed down by the political uncertainty”, he adds (…).

Pisos.com. “Mortgage lending will rise by more than 10% for the fourth consecutive year”.

According to Ferran Font, Head of Research at Pisos.com (…) “Historically low interest rates and the decrease in unemployment mean that we expect mortgage lending to grow at double-digit rates in 2018, like it has done for the last three years”.

General Council of Real Estate Agents: “The rise in rents will lead to tension in sales prices”.

“House prices will grow by around 5% in 2018, driven more by the refuge effect of savings than by objective economic variables”, says the President of the General Council of Real Estate Agents, Diego Galiano. “Savings are not being rewards and housing is recovering a certain degree of stability and offering good prospects for investors (…)”.

TecniTasa: “Prices will grow by around 5%”.

“On average in Spain, we estimate price growth of around 5%, but we highlight that that figure represents an average of a very heterogeneous market, by area and asset class. In some regions and for certain types of high-end homes, the increase will amount to between 5% and 10%, and may even exceed 10% (for example, in the Balearic Islands). Whilst in small towns and for cheaper homes, prices are barely expected to rise at all in 2018”, says José María Basáñez, President of TecniTasa (…).

Civislend: “The mortgage war will intensify”.

“The growth that we will see in terms of mortgage lending is going to continue to reflect double-digit rates and the war in terms of granting loans by financial institutions is going to intensify”, says Manuel Gandarias, Director and Founder of the real estate crowdlending platform Civislend (…).

Acuña & Asociados: “80% of sales will be made in 400 towns”.

“Given the current situation, the expected growth in prices at the national level for 2018 will amount to around 5.5%”, forecasts Luis Rodríguez de Acuña. However, “demand for housing is not behaving in a homogenous way across the country, and transactions are only being recorded in 1,300 of Spain’s 8,125 municipalities”. In other words, in one out of every six. And 80% of transactions “are being closed in just 400 municipalities (…)”. (…).

CBRE: “The sale of new homes will continue to gain weight”.

The value of homes will increase “by around 5% YoY at the national level, with higher rises (between 7% and 10%) in certain markets such as Madrid, Valencia, Málaga and the Balearic Islands”, predicts Samuel Población (pictured above, top row, far right), National Director of Residential and Land at CBRE (…). “Sales of new build homes are going to increase their relative weight (with respect to second-hand homes) as a result of the recovery in construction output; nevertheless, the recovery will not have an immediate impact on transaction volumes given the time lag associated with new build developments”, he says.

BDO: The land market is preventing soaring construction output”.

“We are facing a very favourable macro context (GDP and employment, above all) and therefore, an upwards cycle is likely, which will have different regional rates”, explains Alberto Prieto, at BDO. (…). “The launch of new build projects by the new large players will start to be felt in 2018, and then more intensely in 2019”, he adds. “The situation in the land market makes it unfeasible for the volume of new build homes to soar for the time being”, he says.

Foro Consultores Inmobiliarios: “Fixed-rate mortgages will play an important role”.

Carlos Smerdou, CEO at Foro Consultores, believes that “new build homes will drive the market and that recent land transactions indicate that the trend in terms of prices will be upward, of between 5% and 10%” (…). In terms of fixed-rate mortgages, “they will play an important role”, despite the fact that “interest rates are forecast to remain negative”.

MAR Real Estate: “Banks are still reluctant to grant the necessary financing”.

Rosario Martín Jerónimo, representative of MAR Real Estate in Marbella, believes that house prices will grow by more than 5% in Spain this year, on average (…). Nevertheless, she does not think that sales or mortgage lending will be as high in 2018 as they were in 2017 and that the growth rates will remain below 10% in both cases. “Buyers are willing but the financial institutions are still very reluctant to grant the necessary financing”, she explains. “Many property developers are completely financing their projects using money from private investors/buyers, without any support from the bank”, she says (…).

uDA (urban Data Analytics); “Prices will rise by more than 10% in the large cities”.

“House prices will rise by around 6.9% in 2018, although the behaviour will be tremendously heterogeneous”, warns Carlos Olmos, Director of urban Data Analytics. In other words, there will be “some large cities with growth rates of more than 10% and many other capitals with small decreases” (…).

Gonzalo Bernardos, Professor of Economic: “House prices will rise by 11% and sales volumes by 23%”.

“I think that house prices will rise by 11%”, says Gonzalo Bernardos, Director of the Real Estate Masters at the Universidad de Barcelona (…). Moreover, in macroeconomic terms, it is the best scenario for the residential market: high (economic) growth (around 3%), the creation of employment, scarce new build supply (new build permits will amount to 125,000 in 2018), very low interest rates and bank willingness to grant mortgages”. “House sales will rise by around 23% and mortgage lending will increase by 17%”.

Irea: “House prices will rise by more than 7% in consolidated markets”.

Mikel Echavarren (pictured above, bottom row, far left), CEO of the real estate consultancy and advisory firm Irea, forecasts that house prices will rise by between 5% and 10% in 2018 with respect to 2017. “In consolidated markets, the increases will be closer to 7%”. (…). In the mortgage market (…), “in theory, financing conditions will continue to be very beneficial for buyers and property developers”, he adds.

College of Registrars: “Mortgage lending will grow by around 20%”.

The registrars believe that house prices will rise by less than 5%. “Taking into account our data and the slowdown that is already being seen in Cataluña, which accounts for approximately 17%-18% of the Spanish housing market (…), we think that it will be hard to exceed a growth rate of 5% in 2018”, explains Fernando Acedo Rico, Director of Institutional Relations at the College of Registrars. (…). Something similar will happen with mortgage lending, which “will continue to grow at around 20%”.

Idealista.com: “Madrid will drive the price rises”.

According to Fernando Encinar, Head of Research at the real estate portal Idealista, house prices will rise by less than 5%. (…). “There will be cities that will experience a more acute recovery, such as Málaga, Valencia, Sevilla and the islands. But I think that Madrid is going to be the real driver, with even more accelerated price growth”. Why? “The Spanish capital is gobbling up talent and investment, and demand there indicates that prices are going to continue to rise. There is minimal stock left in Madrid (…)”.

Instituto de Práctica Empresarial: “In 2018, 550,000 homes will be sold in Spain”.

According to the Director of the Real Estate Chair of the Instituto de Práctica Empresarial, house prices will rise by 6.1% in 2018 (…). In Spain, 550,374 homes will be sold, which represents 14.5% more than in 2017, despite the sluggishness that may be seen in Cataluña.

Invermax: “Tourist areas may see price rises of 10%”.

Jesús Martí, Real Estate Analyst at Invermax, thinks that “house prices will grow by another 5%, with this average varying between the large cities and the traditionally touristy coastal areas, where they may rise by 10%”. “It is still a good time to buy a home, especially for investors”, he adds (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake