Inheritance, divorce, job transfers... there are many cases that drive an owner to sell his apartment in Barcelona. Whatever the case, there is a common denominator to most sellers: close the deal in the shortest possible time and at the best price.
And although it is not easy to make predictions in the midst of the uncertainty that the real estate market is going through, the specialists of the real estate comparator HelpMyCash.com consider that there are at least three indicators that this may be a good time to close the transaction: sales prices are high, the demand for housing is still active and forecasts indicate that the market will enter a cycle change in this final stretch of the year.
The price per square meter in the city of Barcelona accumulates seven consecutive months of increases. Specifically, it closed September at 4,121 euros, according to data from the Idealista real estate portal. This represents a 5% year-on-year uptick; while the variation compared to August is nine tenths. These figures are 3.7% away from the historical maximum registered by the real estate portal in September 2019, when the square meter reached 4,279 euros.
But the high inflation that is hitting the country —which was 9% in September— and the rate hikes carried out by the European Central Bank in its attempt to contain it, anticipate a slowdown in the growth of housing prices for the next few years. months. So much so that the Bank of Spain itself has warned in its Quarterly Report on the Spanish economy of a "change in trend in the real estate market".
“Based on these predictions, we believe that this is the right time to sell a flat at a good price. We expect the growth in the value of the brick to begin to moderate in this final stretch of the year and there could be some corrections for 2023”, HelpMyCash specialists point out.
And that's not all. A study carried out by Atlas Real Estate Analytics anticipates a 15.4% contraction in the number of sales registered in 2023 at the country level. This trend could also be transferred to the city of Barcelona, where, during the second quarter of this year, an average of 40 operations per day were signed. Specifically, according to the College of Registrars, 3,608 purchases of second-hand housing were formalized, with the Eixample district in the lead, where 616 transactions were closed.
“We estimate that the Euribor will close 2023 close to 3%, which means that mortgage interest will continue to rise and, with it, fewer buyers will be able to access a mortgage loan. Even more so if we consider the impact of inflation on families' pockets, which reduces their ability to save", they point out from HelpMyCash. Faced with these predictions, real estate experts operating in the city of Barcelona agree that buyers are bringing forward the purchase of homes to agree on the conditions of their mortgage now, while fixed interests of around 3% are still being obtained.
"What we see now is that prices have been increasing in recent months and that the demand for housing is very active," they explain from HelpMyCash. And they add that both indicators allow us to anticipate that this is a good time to sell a flat in Barcelona faster and at a better price. "We do not know how long this trend will continue, but we cannot lose sight of the warnings from the Bank of Spain that anticipate a change in the cycle," they say. Therefore, selling now may be the best opportunity.
