All recent published data confirms that the Spanish property market is well on the way to recovery with prices back into positive territory.
According to data from the Spanish Land Registrars’ Association prices increased by 9.39% in the first quarter of the year while the official Government index shows valuations up 2.7%.
In the month of March the index from the Association of Spanish Notaires increased by 0.4% and figures for April from valuations company Tinsa show growth of 5.4%.
The data from the registrars indicate that prices have risen 26% since they bottomed out at the end of 2014, but are still down 18% compared to the peak in 2007.
A breakdown of the figures from Tinsa reveal that in the larger cities prices increased by 8.7% in April year on year while prices in the Balearics and Canary islands were up by 5.6%. But values on the Mediterranean coast were up by just 0.3%.
‘These national indices don’t tell us anything about local markets, but they do give us some idea of where we are in the property market cycle. Spanish house prices are back in positive territory, whichever index you choose,’ said Mark Srucklin of Spanish Property Insight.
However, the latest real estate report from Lucas Fox points out that figures from Idealists suggest while property prices in Valencia are currently less than half of those in Barcelona and Madrid the market in Spain’s third city is picking up.
Sales transactions in the first four months of 2018 increased by 20% over the same period in 2017 and data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) shows a similar trend with sales of homes in the first quarter of this year, up by 17% compared to the same period in 2017.
Overall prices in Valencia ended 2017 up 13% year on year while the districts popular with foreign buyers, such as Eixample and El Pla de Real, saw price rises of 10% and 13% respectively.
Lucas Fox Valencia data also shows that the number of foreign buyers has increased from 10% in the first four months of 2017 to 33% in the same period this year. The figures also show that 58% of Lucas Fox buyers purchase a home in Valencia as a primary residence, 25% buying as a second residence and 8% as an investment.
‘Valencia has all the amenities and services you would expect from Spain’s third city but its manageable size appeals to foreign buyers, as do the beaches to the north east of the city where the mix of apartments and townhouses with communal pools and play areas make them popular with families,’ said Juan Luis Herrero, partner of Lucas Fox Valencia.
He pointed out that it is a growing hub for business and innovation and is home to leading companies such as Ford, BP, Mercadona and Caixabank. ‘It will only be a matter of time until Valencia becomes as internationally known as Barcelona and Madrid,’ he added.
A significant sign that the property recovery in Valencia is well underway is the growing numbers of cranes hovering over the city. New homes are now in continual demand with Valencia seeing a 5% rise in the number of turnkey home sales in 2017 compared to 2016.
‘The property recovery has been slower in Valencia than in Barcelona and Madrid. But with increasing demand and supply for new homes we expect to see a noticeable change in the pace of the market over the next few years,’ Herrero explained.
