House prices continues to rise and are now doing so at the highest rate since the 2008 crisis. According to data from Fotocasa, prices have risen by almost 13% compared to last year and in some regions housing is now 21% more expensive than it was at the peak of the first property bubble.
In Madrid, the Balearics and the Canary Islands, prices are already more than double those of 2015. But leading the rise is Palma, where housing has become almost 168.5% more expensive. It is followed by Malaga with 153%, Madrid with 131.7%, Valencia with 119% and Santa Cruz de Tenerife with 106.8%.
Many of these are cities that have experienced intense population growth, but where construction has not grown at the same rate, coupled with other factors such as tourist rentals. Other places that have also experienced increases, although not as drastic, are Tarragona, where prices have risen by 19.3%, and Jaén, with an increase of 18.7%.
The situation is very different in Zamora. It is the only municipality where housing prices have fallen. Specifically, they have fallen by 2%. It is the only exception in Spain, confirming that access to housing is increasingly out of reach for the average citizen. In an attempt to tackle this situation, the government wants to launch a €100 million purchase offer to increase the public housing stock. In addition, on Thursday it presented its public housing company Casa 47, through which it intends to rent out the 40,000 homes owned by Sareb.
In the meantime, the Balearic Parliament has rejected the possibility of local councils applying to be declared areas with a strained residential market and capping rental prices. This was one of the points contained in a motion defended by Socialist MP Carol Marqués in Tuesday’s plenary session, which was almost entirely rejected by the votes of the PP and Vox.
The initiative proposed that the regional government, in compliance with the state housing law, declare all municipalities in the region that meet the established conditions as areas under pressure, so that rental prices could be regulated. But it failed to get passed.
Three-bedroom flats were the fastest-selling property type in Spain during the third quarter of the year. According to a study published by idealista, based on properties withdrawn from the platform after being sold, 37% of three-bedroom flats sold in Spain during this period were on the market for less than a month. Similarly, 36% of studios and one- and two-bedroom flats left the market in under a month, while the figure dropped to 29% for homes with four or more bedrooms.