Tag: peaks

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

Registrars: House Prices Rose By 7.7% YoY In Q1

18 May 2017 – El Mundo

Homes are becoming increasingly expensive. House prices rose by 7.7% during the first quarter of 2017 in YoY terms, according to the real estate statistics published by the College of Property Registrars. With respect to the last quarter of 2016 – i.e. looking at the QoQ variation – the increase amounted to 4.1%. With these new increases, the cumulative adjustment since the peaks of 2007 continue to fall and now amount to 22.8%.

On the other hand, 113,738 house sales were recorded between January and March, representing the highest quarterly figure since the first three months of 2011. The increase amounted to 21.8%, with respect to the previous quarter. In interannual terms, the positive trend continued: prices rose by 14.4% with respect to the same quarter in 2016.

On this occasion, contrary to the trend seen in recent years, new house prices performed in line with the general increase, accounting for 18% of the total number of sales, with a significant QoQ rise of 27.5% (20,490 sales), whilst the sale of second-hand homes rose by 20.6% compared to the previous quarter, to reach 93,248 operations.

Purchases by overseas buyers reach peak levels

The weight of house purchases by overseas buyers remained relatively stable during the first quarter of the year to account for 13.1% of all registered sales. That corresponds to sales of around 15,000 properties per quarter. In cumulative YoY terms, foreigners accounted for 13.3% of all purchases, a historical maximum, and corresponding to more than 55,000 house purchases per year by overseas buyers.

By nationality, the British continued to lead the ranking, accounting for 14.5% of all purchases made by foreigners, although their continued fall over the last few quarters (during the previous quarter, they accounted for 16.4% of all purchases made by foreigners) has brought the figure to a new historical low over total purchases by foreigners. The French rose to second place with 9.6%, followed by the Germans (7.7%), Belgians (6.9%), Swedes (6.3%) and Italians (6.1%). These first six nationalities accounted for more than half of all house purchases by foreigners.

Average mortgage amounted to €116,182

Mortgage debt to buy a home increased by 3.6% compared to the previous quarter, to reach €116,182, whilst the number of fixed rate mortgages continued to rise sharply, in line with previous quarters, to account for 38.7% of all new contracts, compared to 31% in the previous quarter, a new maximum in the historical series.

This situation leaves variable rate mortgages at their lowest figure to date, especially, Euribor, which was the reference rate for just 60.3% of all mortgages. The average initial interest rates on new loans decreased slightly to reach 2.3% from 2.4% in the previous quarter.

The terms of new mortgage loans remained relatively stable, recording a slight increase of 0.7% compared to the previous quarter, and an average term of 23 years and four months.

Access to housing saw a slight deterioration: the average monthly mortgage repayment during the first quarter amounted to €536, representing a QoQ increase of 2.2%, whilst the percentage of that repayment over wage costs rose to 28.3% from 27.6%.

Original story: El Mundo 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Fotocasa: Rental Housing Prices Rose by 1% In May

29 June 2016 – El Economista

The average price of rental housing in Spain rose by 1% in May, to €7.36/m2/month, placing rental prices at levels not seen since October 2012 (€7.38), according to the latest data from the real estate portal Fotocasa.

In YoY terms, rental prices rose by 5% in May, the steepest increase since January 2006, when fotocasa.es began to compile these statistics.

The monthly increase in rental home prices recorded in May continues the trend recorded during 2015, the year when rental prices began their recovery after eight years of widespread decreases.

In monthly terms, rental prices increased in 15 autonomous regions in May, meanwhile, in YoY terms, they rose in every Spanish region.

“The rental market is slowly gaining ground in Spain. Despite the re-opening of the credit tap and the marked decrease in prices, there is still a very significant segment of the population that cannot afford to buy a home and is therefore forced to rent. Higher demand, together with the high returns that this market offers, are causing a widespread recovery in prices across the country”, explained the Head of Research at fotocasa.es, Beatriz Toribio.

Since rental prices peaked in May 2007 (at €10.12/m2/month), they have recorded a cumulated decrease of -27.2%. In this sense, four autonomous regions have recorded price decreases of more than 30% since their maximums five years ago.

Aragón is the region where residential rental prices have decreased by the most (by -40.2%), followed by Castilla-La Mancha (-35.3%), Cantabria (-34.9%) and Comunidad Valenciana (-30.3%).

Price rises in 15 autonomous regions

By autonomous region, price rises were recorded in 15 regions in May, with the increases ranging from 3.9% in the Balearic Islands to 0.1% in Cataluña and La Rioja. Meanwhile, prices remained stable in Navarra and fell by -0.1% in Aragón.

In terms of the price ranking, Madrid (€10.29/m2/month) replaced the País Vasco (€10.18) and Cataluña (€10.23) as the most expensive region to rent a home. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Extremadura (€4.53/m2/month) and Castilla-La Mancha (€4.69/m2/month) are the two regions were rental prices are most affordable.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake