Signs of a slowdown in the recovery in Madrid, Catalunya and the Balearics

Statistics regarding the market price of officially valued residential property in Spain during the second quarter of 2019 were published by the Ministry of Development this week, offering some interesting insights into how the market is developing and reinforcing to a certain extent the impression that the recovery in prices is beginning to run out of steam in areas where it began earliest.

In the country as a whole the average value of housing is calculated to have risen by 3.1 per cent since the second quarter of 2018, reaching 1,637.40 euros per square metre (the highest since 2012), but these figures hide an extremely diverse range of results among the different regions and provinces of Spain. For example, the average value of property in Madrid is 2,610 euro/m2 but in the province of Ciudad Real it is just 727 euro/m2!

But among the most telling aspects of the latest set of data are the figures for the three regions where the market recovery is generally accepted as having started earliest. In Madrid the latest figure is 5.1 per cent higher than a year ago, on the face of it a very healthy increase, but during the quarter itself a drop of -0.1 per cent is observed.

Similar results are found in Catalunya, with a year-on-year rise of 4.3 per cent but a quarterly increase of only 0.6 per cent, and the Balearics (+5 per cent and +0.2 per cent respectively). In other words, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that prices in these areas are stabilizing as property begins to become too expensive for the purchasing power of potential buyers.

Published 20/09/19
Source: Spain News Today