The price of second-hand housing is growing faster than ever and is just shy of the bubble record.
The price of apartments on the open market is rising by 11.3% annually in Catalonia and 12.8% in Spain, the largest increase since 2007.
BarcelonaThe price of resale homes in Catalonia has registered its largest increase since records began: in the third quarter of this year, it soared by 11.7% compared to the previous year. However, this surge has not been enough to surpass the peak prices recorded during the housing bubble at the beginning of the century. It is the only housing indicator that has not yet reached 2007 levels. This is according to the latest data from the Housing Price Index (HPI) published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). In Catalonia, the price of new homes grew by 7.6%, well below the most dynamic quarters – the first three months of 2015 saw a 12% increase – and overall, the price of housing – including both new and resale homes – rose by 11.3% in the third quarter, below previous levels.
In the case of Spain as a whole, all indicators—the price of new housing, the price of resale housing, and both combined—have already broken the record set during the bubble years. However, the data for the third quarter of this index share a particularity with those of Catalonia: the price of resale housing has grown more than ever, by 11.7% year-on-year, exceeding the previous record of 11.6%, registered in the first quarter of 2007. The growth in the price of new housing, 7.6%, was also very high (11.3%), but lower than that recorded in the first half of this year.
