House Prices On The Rise Before The Pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic has put a stop to property transactions in most markets around the world, but that doesn’t mean that those who were thinking of transacting before the outbreak won’t be doing so when we come out the other side.

House price data for the first quarter of 2020 from Spain and The UK shows that house prices in those countries was very much on the up before priorities changed and property transactions were kicked into touch.

Number one Spanish portal, idealista.es is the go-to source for national house price data. According to their statistics released today, the year on year rental price increase for Q1 was an impressive 5% with the rise from Q4 of 2019 at 2.6%. 

In the UK house prices rose 3% from January to February leading to one agent hoping “ that when restrictions begin to ease, hopefully relatively soon and without too much damage to the economy, there is every chance that activity will pick up nearly where it left off”. 

However, over the Irish Sea the state of the property market pre-coronavirus was not so rosy according to Irish number one portal Daft.ie. Their quarterly report for Q1 of 2020 states that “the rise seen this year is the smallest in this market cycle. Compared to an average Q1 rise of 3.7% between 2014 and 2019, the rise this year was just 2.2%.”

Are these numbers portents of the future if and when there is such a thing as business as usual in the property industry?