The average price of housing in Spain does not seem to want to exhaust its upward trend and continued to grow during the last quarter of 2022 at an interannual rate of 3.3%, to stand at 1,507 euros per square meter. However, these increases are a kind of last blows. According to the real estate consultancy Gesvalt, which has published its housing report for the fourth quarter of 2022 this Monday, the Spanish residential market is approaching price stabilization that should arrive during the central months of the recently launched 2023.
The revaluations of 3.3% between October and December come after the increase of 4% in the previous quarter, which represented the largest increase since the end of the pandemic. With the last quarter of the year, they add from Gesvalt, there are already seven consecutive periods above 3% at the national level.
An important part of the reasons for this rise, according to the consultant’s experts, is explained by the response effect to the increase in interest rates by the ECB and its consequences on the Euribor, “since they have been able to speed up the decision to home purchase before the possibility of future increases”. In any case, the effects of this acceleration that has revitalized the market will pass, so the prediction of stabilization is maintained.
With the average 1,507 euros, the real estate market continues to approach the all-time high, registered in the first quarter of 2008, although it is still 29.7% below. This figure means that an average 90-meter home would have a price of 135,630 euros, compared to 131,310 euros the previous year.
The increase registered in the last stage of the year is almost generalized, with the sole exception of Extremadura, where there has been a drop of 1.4% to 844 euros per square meter. It is the cheapest region and the only one that, together with Castilla-La Mancha, does not exceed 1,000 euros per square meter. On the opposite side is the Balearic Islands, which for the fifth consecutive quarter marks the peak with 2,611 euros, followed by Madrid (2,412 euros) and the Basque Country, with 2,309 euros per square meter.
The Balearic Islands also command annual price advances. For the second consecutive quarter, the communities with the highest increase were the Balearic Islands (8.1%), which maintained the leadership in the increases for the fifteenth consecutive month, Navarra (6%), Comunidad de Madrid (5.2%) and Comunidad Valencian (5.1%).
In rent, “after a start to the year marked by irregularities”, in recent quarters the price has consolidated a general upward trend throughout Spain. In fact, in the last quarter, the only exceptions have been Córdoba and Huesca, which presented year-on-year contractions of 1.5% and 0.7% respectively. Hot regions like Malaga, the Balearic Islands or Barcelona, in fact, continue to be one of the fastest growing.
Regarding the total figures, Gesvalt estimates that the price in Barcelona stands at 18.21 euros per square meter per month, so that the Catalan capital once again leads the ranking in terms of higher prices. Madrid is in second position (15.88 euros per square meter per month) and Guipúzcoa, in third (15.61 euros).
At the municipal level, the provincial trend is replicated. The only municipalities with incomes of more than 15 euros per square meter per month continue to be Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastián, a group that has been joined in the last three months of the year by Marbella, with 17.28 euros; Castelldefels, with 16.19 euros and Hospitalet de Llobregat, with 15.31 euros per square meter per month. On the other hand, the municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants with the lowest housing rent are Elda, Linares, Puertollano, Lorca and Alcoy; with units less than 5 euros.
