Housing breaks the record it was missing: second-hand apartments in Spain exceed bubble prices

BarcelonaNew housing price record. While both Spain and Catalonia surpassed the peak of the real estate bubble in 2020 in the value of new-build homes, and in the last year and a half have also recorded records in the overall value of housing—which includes new-build and existing homes—the only remaining milestone has now been reached for second-hand apartments and houses. However, the record has been reached throughout Spain, where buying a used home is now more expensive than ever, while in Catalonia it has not yet been surpassed.

This is reflected in the housing price index data published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which shows the quarterly evolution of the value of houses and apartments with an index based on 100 in 2015. Now, in the second quarter of 2025, this indicator has reached 173.924 points.

Catalonia, on the way

This reality has not yet reached Catalonia because the Catalan housing market recorded higher price peaks in 2007 than in Spain as a whole. Although it later surpassed records for new construction prices and overall housing values—which include new construction and existing homes—currently, second-hand apartments are still below the bubble peaks. Using the same index, the price of existing homes in Catalonia stood at 188.098 points in the second quarter of 2007, and now, in the second quarter of 2025, this index has remained at 182.879 points. Not only has it not surpassed the record, but it has actually fallen below the figures for the first three quarters of that year.

For now, in the first quarter of this year, the general price of housing in Catalonia exceeded its historical maximum, also reached in the second quarter of 2007. It did so thanks to a price increase of 11.7% compared to the same period in 2024 –This is also the largest increase recorded since 2007–The value of homes in Spain already broke this record a year earlier, in the first quarter of 2024, which had also been recorded during the real estate bubble.

In fact, housing prices in Spain rose 12.7% year-on-year in the second quarter. Given this figure, which is the second-highest growth in history, the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, defended the need to intervene in the housing market because "it doesn't work on its own." She pointed out that the autonomous communities are the ones "in charge" of housing.

Has it grown as much as it seems?

For Òscar Gorgues, manager of the Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, there is still a long way to go before the price of second-hand housing in Catalonia reaches the level of prices in real terms. The index used by the INE reflects the evolution of housing prices in nominal terms, not in real terms, that is, without reflecting the impact of inflation.

"Since May 2007, in the middle of the second quarter, in May 2025, inflation in Spain has grown by 42.3%, and the price of second-hand housing is now lower than it was then," Gorgues explains in statements to ARA. This means that to recover the level in real terms, the current value would also have to be 42.3% higher than it was in 2007.

This expert highlights that the increase in housing prices has occurred especially in the last decade, in which this relationship between the consumer price index (CPI) and the price of housing is inverse: since 2015, general inflation has increased by 25.3%, well below the evolution of the price of new construction (+118, 81.13% in the last 10 years.

What will happen from now on?

The current scenario suggests that prices have not yet peaked: beyond the fact that second-hand housing in Catalonia has not peaked in nominal terms—and, therefore, neither in real terms—it is important to note that the price increase is very high: in the second quarter, second-hand housing prices rose by 11.6% year-on-year, the same as in Catalonia. Furthermore, the macroeconomic situation is stimulating the market: the downward trend in interest rates in recent years has placed the cost of credit at its lowest level since November 2022, encouraging mortgage borrowing.

"We're matching the prices of 2007; therefore, we can't be talking about bubble prices because they're far from inflation. Furthermore, credit conditions are nothing like they were back then; now there's a lot of savings being put into the housing market. Since so many people aren't excluded and the supply is so small, the market remains so small," Gorgues concludes.