Idealista Unconcerned by Proposed National Property Price Database

Economía Digital has reported that the Spanish government is set to curate a public database of house prices.

The database would be created with the intention of disempowering portals like Idealista and Fotocasa, by democratising key information for prospective home buyers and sellers in Spain.

The paper says Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has proposed the idea of 'a public database that collects actual purchase and rental prices', restoring balance to the housing market away from private classifieds sites that have historically operated with 'carte blanche'.

Economía Digital also reported that industry sources are wary that such a database would "deactivate the portals' greatest strategic asset", whereby "if the State becomes the new arbiter of information, the game changes."

Meanwhile, creating a functional database that is consistently up-to-date, maintained across autonomous regions and city councils would require significant time and resources if it were to remain a trustworthy and easily digestible source of information for the public.

However, AIM Group has reported that Idealista has brushed off the idea, and even doubts whether such a database would be the first of its kind.

Idealista spokesperson Francisco Iñareta told AIM Group:

"[Spanish Prime Minister Pedro] Sanchez’s letter reveals his ignorance of how the real estate market and platforms work. He also makes a mistake when he says that public databases don’t exist: in Spain, we have data from the colleges of registrars, notaries, and the Ministry of Finance itself; what isn’t public is access to them.

"In any case, at Idealista, we’re excited about this initiative, which we hope won’t be like so many others. We would love to include this data and make it available to all users, offering them all the information available so they can make their decisions freely."