According to data from the College of Property Registrars, the average price per square metre for a home in the Balearics in the first quarter of 2022 was 3,132 euros, the highest in Spain. For a home with 80 square metres, this amounts to 250,560 euros, also therefore the highest in the country.
In the Madrid region, second on the list, the average price for 80 square metres was 240,240 euros. In the Basque Country (third), the price was 231,200 euros. At the bottom of the list was Extremadura - 62,880 euros.
The high price of homes in the Balearics is not matched by high average salaries. The most recent data for salaries from the National Statistics Institute are for 2020. The average salary (gross) in the Balearics was 1,844.85 euros per month, the fifth lowest in Spain. In Madrid and the Basque Country, the monthly averages were 2,350.19 euros and 2,278.82 euros respectively. In Extremadura, the average was 1,760.52 euros. The difference between the average prices of homes in the most expensive and least expensive regions of Spain is great, but the difference between salaries is not.
Based on the salary figures, it would take over eleven years to pay for an average-priced home in the Balearics. In Madrid and the Basque Country, it would take around eight and a half years; in Extremadura, just three years.
The president of the API association of real estate agents in the Balearics, Natalia Bueno, is urging the Spanish government to recognise "that we have a problem here and to provide us with resources and legal autonomy in housing matters". "The new national housing law (due for approval before the end of this year) should contemplate this."
She adds that all administrations - local, regional and national - "must adopt measures to increase supply, both for sale and rent" and to cut the bureaucracy that hinders building permits. There also needs to be a reduction in the tax for buying a first home, while planning regulations need to be adapted to population growth.