The forecast for the residential property market in Spain for this year couldn’t look more promising, according to leading global real-estate consultants CBRE.
In the company’s latest report experts have calculated that more houses will be sold this year than last year, the excess stock of unsold empty properties will be reduced and house prices will go up.
It seems that 2016 is the beginning of a new expansive cycle for Spanish residential property and things are only moving upwards.
CBRE has forecast that this year property purchases will increase a massive 20% from last year. But, not only that, house prices will also go up approximately 5%, basically following the trend in major cities like Madrid and Barcelona.
And, that’s not the end of the good news either. With regards to new construction, which has been suffering for years despite the recent upturn in activity, this year could see between 60,000 and 65,000 new properties being built.
While this is still a long way off the optimum figure of around 150,000, it is still much better than the 45,000 new constructions from 2015.
Now, taking a look at the excess stock, which, frankly, if it didn’t exist would put a whole new positive spin on the property and construction sector in this country, it has been calculated that up to 100,000 of these properties will be sold.
This would mean that 2016 will end the year with just 300,000 left, a far cry from the 750,000 of a few years’ ago.
This year, property purchases will rocket in major cities, and added to Madrid and Barcelona, other cities, namely Valencia, Malaga and Bilbao will also dominate as popular destinations of high demand.
In fact, over the next couple of years, CBRE believes that much of the future new construction will take place in these three latter cities, and will overtake Madrid, Barcelona and the Costa del Sol in the number of new builds being constructed.
Nevertheless, no one expects the same mistakes as before when it comes to an increase in construction and property prices. The market is well aware of the mistakes made and is adamant that there will be no repeat of the property crash of 2007.
In any case, it is unlikely to happen as circumstances are not the same nowadays: the population is stabilising in terms of numbers, people are more cautious with their money, more people are renting and banks are no longer throwing their money around. This time, the growth of the property sector is much more rational and sustainable.
