Barcelona’s property market is on the rise
Tuesday, 07 October 2014 08:57
Spain's national statistics institute said second-quarter housing prices had increased 0.8% on the year
Barcelona is one of Europe’s most attractive cities and it looks like property asking prices and sales are rising in the Catalan capital. With demand growing, and asking prices edging up, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that Barcelona’s property market has turned the corner.
Barcelona Properties & Real Estate
The increases can be read as the strongest signal yet that the collapse of real-estate prices that began in 2008 has bottomed out, but not as evidence of a recovery, according to real estate analytics. Critics call it prize stabilization, not a broad-based rebound.
Spain's national statistics institute said second-quarter housing prices had increased 0.8% on the year, compared with a 1.6% drop in annual terms in the first quarter. On a quarterly basis housing prices rose 1.7% over their level during the first three months of the year, the institute said.
Housing prices have declined 35% in Spain as a whole over the past six years. The economy has been gaining traction since it emerged from a nine-quarter-long recession in the second half of last year, triggering more appetite for Spanish assets such as property.
Sadly domestic demand for housing in Spain is still fragile, as many would-be Spanish buyers lack jobs and cash reserves and won’t qualify for mortgages.
That leaves foreign investors leading the demand for housing and stronger price rebounds in areas where they focus their interest. Those areas include central districts of Madrid and Barcelona and parts of the southern Mediterranean coast.
