After slowing last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain is once again looking like a possible investment destination, as yields rise.
Spanish house prices rose by 2.59% (-0.78% inflation-adjusted) to €1,662 per square metre (sq. m) during the year to Q3 2021, its best showing in two years, according to the Bank of Spain. On a quarterly basis, house prices increased slightly by 0.75% in Q3 2021 (0.45% inflation-adjusted).
The nationwide Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE) house price index showed a y-o-y increase of 4.21% (0.78% inflation-adjusted) in Q3 2021.
By property type:
Existing dwellings: prices rose by 4.29% during the year to Q3 2021 (0.86% inflation-adjusted), the biggest growth since Q3 2019.
New dwellings: prices rose by 4.07% y-o-y in Q3 2021 (0.65% inflation-adjusted), slower than the annual rise of 7.46% in the previous year.
By autonomous regions, Canarias saw the biggest y-o-y price growth during the year to Q3 2021, at 6.95%, closely followed by Cantabria (6.88%), Balears (6.78%), Melilla (6.66%), Murcia (6.29%), Andalucía (6.04%), Galicia (5.79%) and La Rioja (5.12%).
Modest house price increases were seen in Valencian Community (4.97%), Asturias (4.61%), Aragón (4.46%), Castilla y León (4.23%), Ceuta (3.38%), Cataluña (3.28%), Navarra (3.28%) and Castilla – La Mancha (3%). There were minimal house price rises in Extremadura (2.86%), Madrid (2.84%) and País Vasco (1.35%).
Spain’s housing market only returned to growth in 2015, having fallen by 36.3% (-42.9% inflation-adjusted) from Q3 2007 to Q1 2015, with existing home prices falling by as much as 43.1% (-49% inflation-adjusted), based on figures from INE. There were 24 consecutive quarters of y-o-y declines.
Sales are rising strongly. Home sales in Spain soared 35.9% to 467,509 units in the first ten months of 2021 compared to the same period last year, after annual declines of 16.9% in 2020 and 2.4% in 2019 and y-o-y rises of 10.8% in 2018, 15.4% in 2017, 14% in 2016 and 11.5% in 2015, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE).
Eighteen of Spain’s 19 autonomous communities and provinces are seeing surging demand. During the first ten months of 2021, Melilla recorded the biggest increase in sales of 59.4%, followed by La Rioja (44.1%), Castilla y León (42.2%), Andalucía (41.5%), Castilla – La Mancha (41%), Madrid (40.7%), Navarra (39.1%), Cantabria (38.2%), Cataluña (36.8%), Valencian Community (35.8%), Galicia (34.9%), and Aragón (34.4%). Sales were also rising in Murcia (29.2%), Extremadura (28.5%), Asturias (27.9%), Balears (24.8%), Canarias (18.4%), and País Vasco (16.2%).
Only Ceuta registered a decline in home sales of 31% during the first ten months of 2021.
Housing starts increased strongly by almost 30% y-o-y to 73,263 units in the first three quarters of 2021, in contrast to a decline of 21.2% during 2020.
Spain houses for sale
All this is happening even though the Spanish economy plunged by a huge 10.8% during 2020, in contrast to a 2% growth in 2019, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the European Commission downgraded its 2021 economic growth forecast for Spain to 4.6%, almost two percentage points less than its earlier estimated of 6.5%. This is in line with the Bank of Spain’s projections of a 4.5% growth this year.
Foreigners have a right to buy and resell all kinds of property – residential, commercial or land, with no limits.