The lack of newly built housing continues to push prices up, especially in the city of Barcelona, ??where in June the square meter exceeded 5,000 euros for the first time after rising by 5.9% in the last year , according to a study by Sociedad de Taxación (ST). Specifically, buying a new flat in the Catalan capital comes out to an average of 5,047 euros/m2, ahead of what it costs in Madrid (4,269 euros/m2) and Sant Sebastià (4,185 euros/m2), the second and third most expensive cities faces, respectively.
Since the middle of 2016, first-hand housing in the Catalan capital has not stopped becoming more expensive, to the point that in December 2021 it exceeded the peak of 4,543 euros reached during the real estate bubble. “Since then we’ve been in record numbers”, details Pablo Pluvinet, delegate in Barcelona of Sociedad de Taxación. An increase that has its origin, he adds, in a mismatch between supply and demand caused by the lack of land and the strong economic and tourist potential of the capital, which attracts a “solvent” buyer and more and more foreign investors.
The president of the Associació de Promotors de Catalunya (APCE), Xavier Vilajoana, points to another reason for Barcelona’s construction drought: the measure that requires 30% to be reserved for protected housing in new developments and renovations from 600 m2 of built-up roof. “Licences have plummeted”, he says. In fact, until the middle of last year, 11 licenses had been granted that had to apply the rule and that generated only 52 protected homes.
In the Spanish territory as a whole, the price of newly built flats rose in June by 6.4% year-on-year, up to 2,809 euros/m2, still below the maximum levels reached at the end of 2007 (2,905 euros/m2). However, the increase was lower than that recorded in December, of 7.1%. A tendency towards moderation attributed mainly to “the volatility of the macroeconomic environment, the increase in the cost of financing and the tightening of financial conditions, as well as the impasse posed by the upcoming elections”, according to Consuelo Villanueva, director of Institutions and Large Accounts at Sociedad de Taxación.
Despite this, the price continues to rise in all the provincial capitals due to the lack of supply. Málaga and Palma are the places where a more pronounced increase is recorded, of 8.2%. Villanueva argues that the production of this type of housing has not been able to respond to the increase in demand that occurred as a result of the new consumer requirements resulting from the confinement, to which is added the accumulated savings of the pandemic and the easy access to financing that existed until recently. Other reasons that explain the rise in prices are the lack of labor and the 8.1% increase in construction costs compared to a year ago.
The forecast is that the pace of price growth will continue to moderate, with the projection of an increase of 5.2% for the fourth quarter of this year. However, Pluvinet warns that the greatest difficulty in accessing credit and wage restraint “are increasing the gap between prices and the population that can buy a home”.
