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 milestone has now been reached, as the remaining stretch of the decline has remained untouched by apartments and existing houses. However, the record has been reached in Spain as a whole, 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 that establishes the base 100 in 2015. In the third quarter of 2007 the price was 2,169.259 points, and 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.–. Home values 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.

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