Companies accelerate divestment in housing in Catalonia by 2025

BarcelonaThe Catalan housing market is losing properties to companies. Legal entities sold 12,010 more homes last year than they bought, a difference that confirms a trend of disinvestment and, according to the Notarial Association of Catalonia, points to "a progressive transfer of housing to private buyers." This phenomenon is also occurring across Spain, where legal entities sold 45,108 more homes than they acquired, and in the city of Barcelona, ​​where 1,705 more were sold than purchased, according to the report's data. Snapshot of the housing market in Catalonia 2007-2025 Data from the Notary Association was presented this Friday at the College of Economists of Catalonia. Last year, legal entities accounted for 10.7% of home purchases in Spain, a percentage that rises to 12.3% in Catalonia and 13.8% in Barcelona. "We have established an indicator that allows us to observe more precisely how, apart from the homes sold by companies, some are also purchased by private individuals," explained Alberto Martínez Lacambra, director of the Notary Association's Technological Center. This data provides context to the debate on the structure of property ownership—that is, whether the properties belong to small, large, or mega-owners—which currently influences some public policies aimed at improving access to housing. At the end of January, the Chamber of Urban Property and the Barcelona Metropolitan Housing Observatory (O-HB) presented two reports on this topic. Amid all this, the Catalan government plans to prohibit speculative housing purchases, as agreed with the Comuns party in mid-February.

It's also worth remembering that housing prices are breaking all records. First it wasthe price of new apartments, then the one ofall the homes on the open market together–both new builds and second-hand properties– and, finally, a week ago, what had resisted the most fell: the value of the latter, also called used homes, exceeded the peak reached in 2007. Almost twenty years after the bursting of the bubble.