Citizens Now Perceive Housing Market As Stable

10 February 2015 – El Mundo

51.5% of citizens expect prices to remain stable over the next year.

This stability in the market is driving the demand for home ownership.

8.4% of Spaniards rented properties in 2013; this figure has now increased to 13.3% and is set to continue to rise.

After institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of Spain (Banco de España or BdE) echoed the end of price decreases, the forecasts made by Spaniards about the real estate market indicates that they expect stability to continue in 2015.

Proof of this is that 51.5% of the 1,510 people surveyed think that house prices will remain largely unchanged over the next year. This is reflected in the Consumer Confidence Index (Índice de Confianza del Consumidor or ICC) prepared by the Centre for Sociological Research (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas or CIS).

On the other hand, the feeling that prices will rise is softening, with only 23.9% of those surveyed believing that prices will rise, i.e. 2.2% fewer than last month. This perception differs from the results recorded in January 2014, when up to 30.4% of those surveyed by the CIS strongly expected an adjustment. Furthermore, now only 17.8% expect prices to continue to decrease.

Once this forecast has been drawn for the real estate market, the intention of citizens to buy a home during the next year grows bit by bit, in a very calm way. 3.9% of respondents say that they are thinking about buying a house, in a period that has already been dubbed as the year of recovery in the sector by experts.

With regard to the rental of properties, the indicators reflect the growing prominence of rentals (since April 2013, when the ICC began to ask survey participants about the topic). In 2013, 8.4% Spaniards lived under this regime, whilst the latest data shows that this figure has risen to 13.3%.

It seems clear that high yields, the professionalization of the sector and a change in the mindset of society have helped the rental model to gain strength in Spain. One more sign of the equilibrium towards which the real estate sector is headed.

Original story: El Mundo (by Pablo Ramos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Increased Mortgage Lending Supports Spanish Property Market Recovery

21 January 2015 – Spanish News Today

Spanish banks regain confidence in real estate loans

One of the various encouraging aspects of the latest figures published by Spain’s notaries for November, in which further indications are shown that the country’s property market is at last achieving stability and even limited growth, is the increase in the extent to which residential property purchases are being financed by mortgage loans.

The notaries report that during November last year 13,857 residential property purchases were made with the aid of mortgages, 35% more than twelve months previously. At the same time, the average amount loaned by banks remained generally stable, falling by just 0.6% to €113,093 on property purchase mortgages (whilst the price of property itself fell by 1.5%).

In general terms, the notaries conclude that 40.6% of all residential property purchases last November were financed by means of a mortgage loan, the highest proportion in the first eleven months of 2014, and that in these cases the loans covered 74.9% of the total price.

It seems that as price stability becomes a reality it is not just purchasers who are becoming more confident about venturing into the market: banks also appear to be reaching the conclusion that the market is now solid enough for mortgages to represent an acceptable risk.

Original story: Spanish News Today

Translation: Carmel Drake