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Seven Spanish regions ended 2014 with higher prices than in 2013

SpainHouses.netMarch 2, 2015March 2, 2015Leave a comment

The timid recovery of the Spanish real estate market has started to become noticeable in property prices.

Free-market house prices experienced their first quarterly increase in late 2014, according to figures released by the Public Works Ministry. There had not been an uptick in the market since early 2008.

Prices rose 0.5% in Spain as a whole thanks primarily to a surge in demand for existing homes, which now represent nearly two thirds of sales.

The value of existing homes grew 0.2% from the previous quarter, while the price of new homes retreated 0.1%.

The average price of free-market housing in the last quarter of 2014 was €1,463.10 a square meter.
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Good expectations for Spanish housing market

SpainHouses.netNovember 3, 2014April 2, 2020Leave a comment

Improved confidence in the economy, a wide spread belief that property prices have finally hit rock bottom and more readily available financing are all helping encourage sales in Spain, according to experts.

It has been widely reported that the summer months saw a recovery in the country’s property market with some seeing sales increase by 8.8% in June compared with the same month in 2013.

Lending also increased, up by 19% in June 2014 compared with June 2013 and there was also a slight rise in prices which saw a 1% increase in the second quarter of 2104, the first quarterly rise for six years.

Before the economic crisis 40% of mortgages were taken out by immigrants. This has now fallen to only 3%. The average age of buyers has also gone up. The percentage of buyers younger than 25 has fallen from 16% to 3%. When it comes to investors, the volume of foreign investments is constantly increasing and 2013 saw a 16% increase on 2012. It is not uncommon for 80% of an estate agent's client base to be foreigners.
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House prices in Spain rise for the first time since the beginning of the crisis

SpainHouses.netSeptember 9, 2014September 9, 2014Leave a comment

The Spanish real estate market experienced its first good news after a slump lasting over six years in the second quarter of 2014.

Between April and June house prices rose for the first time since early 2008, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The Housing Price Index grew an average 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2013, the numbers show.

Broken down by type of housing, the price of new homes rose 1.9 percent while that for existing homes grew 0.2 percent.

The drop in house prices had been slowing for several quarters, suggesting a gradual market recovery. The sharpest decline was registered in the third quarter of 2012, when prices dropped 15.2 percent compared with the same period in 2011.
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Right to Adequate Housing in Spain 1

SpainHouses.netAugust 4, 2014August 4, 20141 Comment

From Human Rights Watch. The Spanish government has failed to take adequate measures to avoid and alleviate the impact of the housing and debt crisis amid economic down-turn in Spain. Since the economic crisis began in 2007, banks have foreclosed on over 500,000 properties under a procedure that leaves individuals and families saddled with significant debt and no realistic pathway towards discharging their debt. Immigrants, women heads of household, women victims of economic abuse, and children are among the vulnerable groups affected by the crisis.

Spain’s social crisis around evictions and debt arise in a context of decades of government policies aggressively promoting home ownership and borrowing and inadequate efforts to ensure an appropriate and affordable stock of rental housing and sufficient investment in public housing. Irresponsible lending, unfair terms in mortgage contracts (such as exorbitant default interest rates), unscrupulous behavior by intermediaries such as real estate agencies, and the lack of oversight during the boom economic years contributed to the current situation.
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Falling of property price in Spain have slowed substantially 1

SpainHouses.netJuly 14, 20141 Comment

Home prices in Spain fell 4% in May compared with a 10.4% drop recorded in May 2013, indicating that the market could be nearing the bottom.
The data from the leading valuations company Tinsa index also shows that this was the lowest annual drop in May since 2008.

The biggest price declines were on the Mediterranean coast, down 7.9%, but even that was the slowest drop since 2010. Madrid saw the smallest fall at 3.3% and other large cities also saw smaller than usual price declines.

Recently released figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed a 1.6% annual decline in prices recorded in the first quarter of the year compared to a 7.8% annual decline in the fourth quarter of 2014. On a quarterly basis prices fell 0.3% compared to a 1.3% drop in the fourth quarter.
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Spain: Magnet for Global Bargain Hunters

SpainHouses.netJune 23, 2014June 23, 2014Leave a comment

As one of the most moribund housing markets in Europe, Spain has become a magnet for global bargain hunters. Real estate prices are down as much as 50 percent from their peak during a housing bubble, and investors from Asia to the United States and Britain are flocking to Spain to try to catch the uptick.

British Airways flights to Madrid are packed with London-based real estate executives. The hedge fund Baupost is buying shopping centers, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are buying apartments in Madrid, and Paulson & Company and George Soros’s fund are anchor investors in a publicly listed Spanish real estate investment vehicle. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts just bought a stake in a Spanish amusement park complex. Big-name private equity firms and banks are teaming up with and competing against one another on huge loan portfolios with names like Project Hercules and Project Octopus.
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Spanish Property Market is on the Verge of Recovery

SpainHouses.netJune 16, 2014April 2, 2020Leave a comment

The downward trend in the property market in Spain is drawing to a close and it is unemployment that is hindering a full recovery, according to the International Monetary Fund.

With unemployment still hovering around 26% the real estate sector is unlikely to move into full recovery mode just yet, says the report author James Daniel, head of the IMF’s Spain mission.

But the report does point out that the country’s economy has ‘turned the corner’ after economic improvements took hold in the second half of last year and continued in the first quarter of 2014. Indeed, it adds that the Spanish economy is now growing at its fastest pace since 2008.

It also says that labour reform and wage moderation are helping turn job destruction to job creation. Compared to a year before, unemployment fell in the first quarter of 2014 and jobs, as measured by social security affiliations, increased by about 200,000 in April.
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Home evictions averaged 184 a day in Spain last year

SpainHouses.netMarch 31, 2014March 31, 2014Leave a comment

The number of court-ordered home evictions for non-payment of mortgages, rent or other legal reasons reached 67,189 last year, according to judicial statistics released on Friday.

The number of open cases – pending eviction requests – stood at 82,860, which is 9.8 percent fewer than the previous year, said the General Council of Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog in its annual report.

Of the total number, 38 percent were due to non-payment of mortgages while 57 percent were for non-payment of rent. Another four percent were for other causes. The figures reflect an average of around 184 evictions per day in 2013.

A breakdown by regions shows that Catalonia had the most evictions last year (23.8 percent) followed by Valencia, Andalusia and Madrid.
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House Prices Keep Falling in 2014 2

SpainHouses.netFebruary 24, 2014April 2, 20202 Comments

House prices in Spain will continue to fall during 2014 and bottom out in 2015 when the demand for housing is likely to improve, according to a new analysis of the nation’s residential real estate market.

The report from Fitch Ratings points out that according to figures from the Housing Department the Spanish house price index (HPI) reached a peak year on year decline of 10% in December 2012 and fell by an additional 2.3% by the third quarter of 2013 which means that overall, the HPI has fallen by almost 30% since the onset of the financial crisis.

Despite the deceleration of house price decline, Fitch predicts that prices will continue to fall during 2014 and bottom out in 2015. It says that the house price decline will be driven by an estimated property overhang of above one million units.

The report also points out that during 2013 banks become increasingly willing to offload retail residential assets at deep discounts. Fitch expects this trend to continue, which, combined with the initiation of the commercial activity by the asset management company SAREB in the middle of 2013, will continue to put significant pressure on house prices.
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Andalucía’s Anti-eviction Law Suspended by Court 1

SpainHouses.netJanuary 27, 2014January 27, 20141 Comment

Spain’s Constitutional Court has suspended - provisionally - the law passed by the Junta de Andalucía in October to prevent families with limited financial resources being evicted from their homes.

The law, described as a measure to ensure the social function of a property, allowed the authority to temporarily expropriate the use of a property repossessed by a bank so that its original owners could still live in it.

The Constitutional Court has admitted the central government appeal against the law designed by the Junta de Andalucía to ease home evictions by temporarily expropriating the use of houses seized by banks and allowing their owners to continue living in them.

The Andalusian law was passed on October 1st and revoked a previous decree on the same matter which had been passed in April and was also the subject of an appeal on grounds of it being unconstitutional.
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