The tendency of housing is to appreciate over time. But prices evolve in very different ways in each neighborhood, a heterogeneity attributable to factors such as the socioeconomic composition of the area, tourist pressure and gentrification, the urban transformation of the territory or demographic growth, which makes neighborhoods that were previously marginal are now in coveted areas.
The price per square meter of homes in Barcelona has skyrocketed in the last decade and has risen by 61.1%. The price of housing, yes, has varied unevenly in the different districts of the city.
Sarrià-Sant Gervasi stands out, with an increase of 74.1% since 2013. Its homes have also remained the most expensive in Barcelona and have gone from €3,495/m² in 2013 to €6,085.6/m² in 2022 .
L’Eixample is the district with the second highest increase over the last decade: having gone from €2,898.3/m² in 2013 to €4,978.94/m² in 2022, its homes have become 71.8% more expensive in this period, a value similar to that of Sants-Montjuïc (70.5%).
The district where the price has shown the least increase is Sant Andreu (44.4%), which has gone from €2,138.5/m² in 2013 to €3,087.1 in 2022.
Only two neighborhoods have shown decreases in house prices —very subtle, by the way— since 2013. These are Trinitat Vella (-1.1%) and Provençals de Poblenou (-0.2%).
Prices have increased dramatically in some central neighborhoods of Barcelona. Neighborhoods with a large gentrification process such as Poble Sec (increase of 129.7%), Sant Antoni (126.8%), Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou (150.5%) or Dreta de l’Eixample ( 121.9%).
Can Peguera is a tiny neighborhood known for what were known as “cheap houses”, which ironically have become 299.7% more expensive, incomparable to other corners of Barcelona. These are more than five hundred one-story houses that the Barcelona Municipal Housing Institute built in 1929 to relocate the squatters from the Montjuïc mountain, which was to host the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.
The price of housing in this neighborhood is documented at €2,448.28/m² in 2022, still below the city average, but four times more expensive than in 2013, when it was €612.6/m².
The Marina del Prat Vermell also houses “cheap houses” from 1929 and until 2004 the marginal neighborhood of Can Tunis was within its limits. Since then, the neighborhood has undergone a barbaric urban transformation promoted by the City Council.
With this and the industrialization of the Free Zone, housing has gone from being worth €684.5/m² in 2014 to being worth €2,825.19/m² in 2022.
An increase in the price of housing, if it is not accompanied by a similar increase in wages, makes it difficult to afford access to housing.
It is estimated that, to pay for a flat in Barcelona, ??a worker who receives the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) should dedicate his full salary for 30 years, publishes Comissions Obreres de Catalunya. The average working life of a Spaniard is 36 years (Eurostat, 2022).
If this same worker were to spend 30% of their income, which is theoretically recommended for good financial health, they would have to spend their entire salary for 98 years.
These data justify changes in the mentality of buyers, who already assume that one’s salary is insufficient to buy a home, but also that of owners, who wonder if it is better to sell or rent now to make their assets more profitable.
