House prices up by 2.9% and sales by 13.3% as 2016 proves another positive year for property
Saturday, November 19, 2016 @ 9:49 PM
HOUSING market data so far for 2016 has been optimistic across the board from every source, pointing at a significant rise in sales and an increase – albeit tentative – in home values.
Figures for this year are only generally available up to September, but report a 13.3% year-on-year hike and a total of 391,126 residential properties being shifted in the 12 months prior.
Of these, eight in 10 were second-hand homes, up by 25%, whilst new builds are declining in popularity with figures down from last year by 2.3%.
As for housing values, quantity surveyors Tinsa reports an average rise of 2.9% until September, whilst Eurostat points at a 2.6% increase nationwide for the first two quarters of 2016.
But property values in Spain vary so vastly it is difficult to give concrete figures; homes in tourism belts and major cities continue to climb and sell rapidly, whilst those in smaller towns and inland areas remain stagnant and spend longer on the market.
Prices may be about to stagnate, however, says Felipe Rufino, who runs an online valuation calculator.
“As we have observed in our research on home prices, although in some towns the value hike has been somewhat steep, the general trend in the second half of 2016 is for a more contained and discreet price rise which appears to confirm a slowdown in the market; possibly because of the recent political stalemate,” Rufino says, referring to Spain's 11 months without a government.
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