The price of housing in Spain has increased by 1.9% compared to last year, after rising 0.8% in the first quarter of this year according to the latest quarterly real estate statistics published yesterday by the College of Registrars. Housing, after a few quarters of sluggishness due to the impact of the rate hike, has now accumulated three consecutive quarters of rising prices.
The rise in prices has been caused by the increase in the cost of new housing (4.1%), while used housing has registered a more moderate increase, of 1.1%.
By community, the largest increases were recorded in Navarra (14.4%), the Balearic Islands (6.8%), the Valencian Community (5.4%) and Asturias (5.3%), communities with large increases in prices of new housing, which in many cases may be due to the launch of luxury housing developments on the market. Thus, in Navarra the new home sold in the first quarter is 23.2% more expensive than that sold a year ago, with also strong increases in Asturias (15.5%) and the Balearic Islands (12.4% ).
The communities with the highest average prices in the first quarter were Madrid (3,344 euros/m2), followed by the Balearic Islands (3,325), the Basque Country (3,031) and Catalunya (2,463 euros), while the lowest prices were recorded in Extremadura (804 euros) and Castilla-La Mancha (893 euros), the only two communities with prices below 1,000 euros/m2.
The data from the registrars show that in the first quarter the pace of decline in home sales has slowed, when compared to a year, 2023, where the market was already registering double-digit declines. Thus, between January and March, 151,476 home sales were registered in the property registries, with a drop of only 5.9% compared to the first quarter of last year.
In the period, 14.2% of purchases have been made by foreigners, a percentage that has decreased from the historical maximum that was achieved in the third quarter of 2023 (15.4%), despite the fact that the number of purchases that have carried out has in fact increased, and has exceeded 21,500 operations, compared to less than 21,000 in the previous quarter. Their purchases have greater weight in the most touristic communities: Balearic Islands (31.7%), Comunitat Valenciana (28.8%), Canary Islands (26.0%), Murcia (23.4%) and Catalunya (15.6% ).
The British are the most active nationality, with 9.1% of purchases made by foreigners, followed by Germans (6.8%), Moroccans (6.1%), French (5.9%) and Belgians ( 5.5%).