Tag: stable prices

Tinsa: Madrid & Barcelona Lead Housing Market Recovery

1 July 2015 – Expansión

Tinsa’s IMIE Local Markets report says that Cataluña (with an increase of 1.3%) and Madrid (+0.6%) were the only regions that recorded house price increases during the second quarter 2015 with respect to the same period in 2014.

However, the speed of recovery is very different by region. In Navarra, Cantabria, Asturias, Valencia and Extremadura, YoY declines of more than 5% have been recorded, whilst in others, prices have also increased: Galicia and Castilla-La Mancha (by +0.6%, respectively) and País Vasco (+0.3%).

These figures have left Spain’s average price index in negative territory. It recorded a decrease of 2.9%, although that represented a slow down from the decline of 4.5% that the market ended the year (2014) with.

By province

There were YoY increases in six provinces, namely: Barcelona (+3.4%), Cuenca (+1.2%), Tarragona (+0.8%), Madrid (+0.6%), León (+0.4%) and Huesca (+0.3%). “With the exception of Barcelona and Madrid, where the evolution of prices in recent quarters seems to underpin the trend, we will have to wait and see whether this trend is consolidated in the other provinces”, says Tinsa in its report.

Meanwhile, there were decreases of more than 5% in 15 provinces. “If we analyse the behaviour of prices over the last four quarters, the province of Barcelona is the market that is displaying the clearest signs of recovery”, says the report. Madrid, Vizcaya, Girona and Toledo are the next best performing provinces in this ranking.

By capital

If we analyse data by capital city, we see that increases have been recorded in seven capitals. From highest to lowest, these were: Huesca (+5.2%), Barcelona (+4.9%), Málaga (+2.6%), Madrid (+2.5%), Guadalajara (+2.4%), Palma de Mallorca (+0.9%) and León (+0.4%). Meanwhile, prices in the cities of Burgos and León remained stable.

Decreases of more than 10% were recorded in four provincial capital cities (Córdoba, Almería, Oviedo and Ávila) in YoY terms and the reductions exceeded 5% in eleven capital cities during the last year.

Effort

Another interesting finding from the report is the level of gross financial effort required for the acquisition of a home, which has reduced between buyers since 2007. Specifically, it has decreased from representing 33% of annual income to 23%.

“If instead of taking into account the payment of the average mortgage, the calculation is performed on the market value of the home, according to Tinsa’s data, then buyers that have to make the greatest effort to buy a home are those in the Balearic Islands, where a borrower needs 12.2 years on average to pay off his property, versus the Spanish average of 5.8 years”, explains the document.

Finally, another important indicator is the average time it takes to sell a home in Spain, which currently stands at 10.6 months.

Original story: Expansión (by M. G. Mayo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tecnocasa: Average Rents Reached €8.54/sqm In 2014

19 February 2015 – El Mundo

Rental prices (in 2014) were slightly higher (+0.47%) than at the end of 2013.

The market is suffering its greatest declines in Madrid (-1.57%) and Barcelona (-0.59%).

The typical landlord profile: pensioners (28%), Spanish nationals (96%) and married (70%).

The typical tenant profile: single people, with permanent employment contracts, aged between 25 and 44 years old and Spanish.

The Tecnocasa Group has presented its first report about the residential rental market in Spain (a groundbreaking study). Highlights show that the average cost of rental homes amounted to €8.54/square metre (in 2014), which is slightly higher (+0.47%) than at the end of 2013.

With these figures on the table, Tecnocasa says that “rental prices have remained stable (upwards)”, although it acknowledges that there has been a slight decline in the two largest Spanish cities. Specifically, rents became 1.57% cheaper in Madrid and 0.59% cheaper in Barcelona, where prices amount to €10/sqm in absolute terms.

One must go back to 2007 to find the last report about rental prices nationwide. The then Housing Minister, María Antonio Trujillo, presented the OEVA (the State Observatory for Rental Housing or ‘Observatorio Estatal de la Vivienda en Alquiler’), which was the first official survey about the market. It was also the last. That study reported that the average price of rental housing was €7.20/square metre.

Tecnocasa’s study shows that the profile of landlords, i.e. of the people that lease out their properties, includes a high percentage of pensioners (28%), Spanish nationals (96%) and married people (70%). In terms of the profile of tenants, they are single, with permanent employment contracts, aged between 25 and 44 and, for the most part, are Spanish.

Lázaro Cubero, Director of the Department for Analysis and Reports (Departamento de Análisis e Informes or DAI) at the Tecnocasa Group, notes that rental prices have decreased by less than purchase prices in the last year, which means that “the yield a landlord can obtain by renting out a home that he/she owns is now greater”. Specifically, this yield has increased to 7.41% on average for the whole of Spain.

These figures represent the findings of the first report about the rental market conducted by the Tecnocasa Group and the Univerisdad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), based on a study that analyses data extracted from the property rental agreements brokered by Tecnocasa’s network (of agents) in Spain between 2012 and 2014.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake