The price of housing in Spain accentuated its increase to 12.2% year-on-year in the first quarter, the largest increase in 18 years - since the first quarter of 2007 - according to data released this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which place the increase corresponding to the Canary Islands at 12.4%.
With this new increase, prices have chained 40 quarters upwards in a context marked by the current housing deficit in the face of growing demand, which is straining the market, and by the falls in interest rates and the cheapening of mortgages, which are encouraging sales.
By type of housing, second-hand housing became 12.3% more expensive between January and March, its largest increase since the beginning of 2007. New housing did so by 12.2%.
The increase in the first quarter occurs after the average price of housing rose by 8.4% in 2024, the highest rate since 2007 - when the series of this statistic began - and chained 11 years upwards. In fact, the increase in 2024 doubled that of a year earlier.
Double-digit increases in all communities with Andalusia at the head
Compared to the previous quarter, the fourth of 2024, housing prices rose by 3.5% in the interquarterly rate. This rate has been rising for five quarters.
The prices of new housing were the ones that increased the most in the first three months of the year, 5.5% compared to the fourth of 2024.
For their part, second-hand housing prices rose by 3.2% compared to the previous three months.
Housing prices presented positive annual rates of two digits in all the communities and autonomous cities in the first quarter.
The largest increases occurred in Andalusia and the autonomous city of Melilla (both with 14%).
Above the average were also the increases in Murcia and La Rioja (13.3%); Asturias and the autonomous city of Ceuta (13.1%); Canary Islands, Castilla y León and Basque Country (12.4% in all of them) and Valencian Community (12.3%).
Among the most dynamic markets, such as Madrid and Catalonia, the increases were 11.6% and 11.7%, respectively.
The smallest increases were recorded in the Balearic Islands (10%), Cantabria (10.2%) and Castilla-La Mancha (10.4%).
More than 400,000 homes are missing
The Bank of Spain (BdE) has estimated between 400,000 and 450,000 homes the accumulated deficit in Spain between 2022 and 2024, of which more than half corresponds to only five provinces.
To this is added the provisional calculation for this year that points to an additional deficit of 150,000 homes. In this way, Spain would already accumulate a need for about 600,000 new homes.
BBVA Research predicts that the price of housing will rise by around 6.5% on average per year this year and next, slightly more in 2025 than in 2026, an year, the latter in which, according to its calculations, sales will exceed 800,000 units.
According to the forecasts handled by Singular Bank, the price of housing in Spain could increase between 2025 and 2026 close to 9% in an accumulated way.