The Housing Crisis in Spain "Seems to Have Come to an End"

Real estate portals have reviewed recent data on housing prices in Spain and say that the real estate crisis ‘seems to have come to an end.’

Idealista and Fotocasa commented on this data which was published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The data shows that in Spain, housing prices increased 6.6% at the end of 2018, six-tenths less than the annual rate from December.

Idealista Head of Studies, Fernando Encinar, explained that ‘the 6.6% increase nationally and the fact that prices have increased in all autonomous communities, confirms that the real estate crisis that has lasted so many years has reached its end.’ Although he pointed out that in many areas, the price drops have been so strong that they are still well below the peaks reached 10-12 years ago.

Encinar stressed that Madrid and Catalonia are in a phase in which the available stock is shrinking ‘rapidly’ while they are the main recipients of internal immigrants and that ‘new measures are needed to expand the number of homes on the market.’

For its part, the Director of Studies at Fotocasa, Beatriz Toribio, added that ‘2018 has been a very good year for the housing market and that housing prices reflect that,’ but emphasized that the residential market shows ‘some moderation of the activity,’ related to lower economic growth, tourism, and in comparison to the international market.

According to Fotocasa, for 2019 the housing market ‘will continue to show clear signs of recovery because we are in an expansive cycle of the sector.’ However, it said that growth will be more moderate than this year ‘in line with macroeconomics, which will behave somewhat weaker according to the forecasts of international agencies and the government itself.