08 January, 2020

By VIVA Team

Price of property in Spain last year

Up 3.6% in the 12 months to December 2019

First of all, Happy New Year from myself and everyone here at VIVA! After the indulgences of this Christmas period, it’s time to get back to business and start off the new year on the blog with some interesting real estate news. And interesting it is, too – especially if you already own a home here – because the price of property in Spain went up by an average of 3.6% in 2019, according to valuations firm Tinsa.

This figure is a year-on-year percentage increase, meaning home values rose by this amount compared to the same period the previous year. Although prices continued their upward trend in 2019 – something that's happened for the last 13 consecutive quarters – it is worth noting that they did so more gradually than in 2018; a year when Spanish property enjoyed a more acute 5% interannual rise.

By region

Q4 2019 data

It must be stressed that these statistics are a national average and the price of property in Spain does, naturally, vary from region to region. In the north-west of the country, for instance, home values tend not to go up anywhere near as much as properties on the more sought-after Mediterranean coast or on the Balearic Islands.

To illustrate this point, Tinsa highlights a comparison between the Spanish provinces and Autonomous Communities (regions, to you and I) at opposite ends of the valuation spectrum in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Property in the vast province of Cuidad Real was down valued 8.4% in Q4 2019 compared to the same period the previous year, while the greatest positive interannual spike in the final trimester of last year was registered in Huesca (+10.7%).

Despite this seemingly large data spread, the price of property in Spain increased, on average, just 2.6% in Q4 2019. In the context of the year as a whole, it was, in fact, the weakest period in terms of pricing increments. Q1, Q2 and Q3 saw average house price growth of 4.9%, 3% and 3.8% respectively against the previous year.

Mediterranean coast

Sticking with Tinsa’s Q4 2019 data, it’s immediately apparent that houses along virtually all of the Mediterranean coastline – historically a reliable indicator of nationwide home valuation – experienced year-on-year price increases of between 1% and 5%... which was to be expected.

The province of Málaga, home to the popular homebuying destination of the Costa del Sol, saw the average price of its residential real estate swell 4.6%. In layman’s terms, this means the average price per square metre of both new and used properties in both coastal and inland areas of Málaga province stood at €1,673 by the end of 2019.

Best properties on the Costa del Sol
Best properties on the Costa del Sol

Again, and in-keeping with the price of property in Spain in general last year, the interannual growth of Málaga real estate prices (+7.5%) slowed down against 2018’s figure (+8.4%), meaning prices are not forecast to spiral out of control anytime soon.

After all, Costa del Sol house prices closed the year a mammoth 34% shy of their maximum pre-crisis levels and experts are already predicting more modest house price increases in 2020 (some estimates put the number between 3% and 3.2%).

The year (and decade!) has just begun, though, so be sure to keep checking the VIVA blog for periodic updates on the Spanish property market and news related to homes on the Costa del Sol!

What did you think of this post about the price of property in Spain in 2019? If you have a house here already, is this satisfying news to hear? And if you haven’t bought yet, are you glad that increases will be much more moderate in the coming months? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!


Sources:

https://www.tinsa.es/servicio-de-estudios/imie/mercados-locales/cuarto-trimestre-2019/