House prices on the rise
Housing prices are experiencing sustained increases with last year’s rise of 4.6%, although prices are still well under those of the 2007 housing boom
The price of housing is showing signs of a sustained increase but perhaps not quite up the same level as in 2017. In fact, the increase has been rather more contained in Catalonia which has not suffered from the excessive intensity seen in other areas of the State as shown by a number of detailed reports by real estate experts. Part of the reason it seems is that prices rose more in 2016 in Catalonia than in other regions. The previous year the increase was 11% and last year the rise was 4.6%.
Despite price rises, experts deny that there is a possibility of a new real estate bubble. The increase is sustained and given on a year-on-year basis, is higher than in communities such as Madrid. This sustainability is explained by the fact that the real estated industry is far more professional than it was prior to 2007 and as well, credit agencies are today exercising far greater control over the lending market, meaning that fewer foreclosures are recorded in sales of properties made in recent years.
The rental market is proving to be far more volatile and prices have risen quickly, leaving many in central urban areas needing to look in peripheral zones for affordable accommodation, thus transfering the phenomenom of higher prices to those areas. “In Barcelona, there are practically no rental properties available below €900 per month, which is where the demand is concentrated, and those who can pay these prices are forced to become buyers,” says the foundation Habitat 3’s Carme Trilla. For Gonzalo Bernardos, author of the real estate report of Forcadell, “in Barcelona the level of renting has begun to show signs of stagnation.”