Second-hand housing in 2016
In 2016 the real estate market has strengthened the revival that began to be envisaged in 2014 and offers a more encouraging picture. This year all the indicators that control the health of the housing market (sales, mortgages, visas, etc.) have registered double-digit growth rates that we have not seen for years.
This improvement has been translated into prices. For the first time in nine years, the real estate index fotocasa closes a year with a positive variation of the sales price of second – hand housing (1.9%) , which contrasts with the fall of -0.8% in 2015 and above all With a decline of -6% in 2014 and -10% in 2013. This increase is the second to record our Index in its 12-year history and after nine years of continued declines in the price of second-hand housing.
The data from our report reveals that the strong wind blows in favor in more points of the country compared to 2015, but they are the great cities and the main tourist destinations of the coast where the prices record the most significant increases. Barcelona and Madrid capital and bordering municipalities are the main highlights, along with the Balearic Islands and other coastal enclaves.
The return of greater and better financing, the devaluation of housing by almost 45% from the pre-crisis highs, the investment appetite in a context of low interest rates, high yields offered by rent and a macroeconomic scenario More encouraging are the normalization to which the sector tends and the stabilization of prices, except for the big capitals where one can already speak of recovery.
Once again in 2016 the different speeds to which the sector is moving and the unequal behavior of prices have become evident. At the end of the year, the Balearic Islands (8%), the Canary Islands (7.8%), Andalusia (3.1%), Comunidad Valenciana and Madrid (both rose by 2.4%) and Catalonia , Which increased by 2.2% in 2016.
These increases contrast with the fall of -6.8% in La Rioja or the decrease of more than -2% in Cantabria, Castilla y León and the Basque Country. However, they are slight falls compared to the two-digit declines that prevailed at the end of 2013.
This selective recovery becomes more evident when analyzing the cumulative fall from the peak price recorded in 2007. If the national average has dropped from -45.2% in 2015 to -44.1% in 2016 in the big cities Like Barcelona this percentage reduces to -28.2% and in Madrid capital to -37.9%.