Housing maintains its vigor and prices rise 7.6% in the third quarter

The price of free housing rose 7.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 December 2022 Friday 17:39
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Housing maintains its vigor and prices rise 7.6% in the third quarter

The price of free housing rose 7.6% year-on-year in the third quarter of the year in Spain, somewhat below the previous 8% and the second period downward, according to data published this Friday by the INE. Despite this slight moderation, progress is at high levels, less than inflation that between July and September averaged 10%.

Without reflecting slowdowns due to the rise in interest rates, which make mortgages more expensive, or doubts about the arrival of a crisis, the sector maintains its tone. By chapters, second-hand housing is more expensive, 7.8%, from the previous 7.9%. New constructions are also growing strongly, 6.8%, but with a much more noticeable moderation, two points lower than in the second quarter.

The moderation is more notable in the Balearic Islands, where prices go from growing 10.9% to 8.3%. In any case, it is one of the regions where the price of housing increases the most, only surpassed by Cantabria and its 9.3%. It is followed by Andalusia (8.3%). Where real estate rises the least is in Galicia, with 6.1%. "The next statistics will be the key to verify if the deceleration that begins to take place in the sector is also transferred to the price of housing," says Ferran Font, director of studies at Pisos.com.

Several escape the tendency to brake. The Basque Country sees how prices go from rising 6.5% to 7.8%, the furthest from the path to moderation. Prices also accelerated in Extremadura (from 5.3% to 6.5%) and in Catalonia, where they went from growing 7.2% to 8.1%, both in new and second-hand housing.

In addition to the higher price Castilla-La Mancha (from 6% to 6.6%) due to the increase in second hand, Madrid (from 7.3% to 7.6% and with second hand rising 8%), Castilla y León (from 6.4% to 6.6%) and La Rioja (from 7.9% to 8.1%).

Quarter over quarter Madrid (2.3%), Ceuta, La Rioja, the Basque Country (2.2%) and Catalonia (2.1%) marked the largest increases. "By type of home, new home prices rose 0.9% between the third and second quarters of 2022. For their part, second-hand home prices increased 1.9%," says the INE in its publication this Friday.

After the data was made public, some real estate portals indicated that a "cooling off of price increases" is expected and they do not rule out "possible decreases" in some communities. Idealista's spokesman, Francisco Iñareta, highlighted that "the data published for the third quarter are based on operations closed even before the summer, so they still do not reflect the significant rise in financing that we have experienced in recent months and that has expelled an important part of the market demand”, according to the Servimedia agency. Iñarreta pointed out that possible price declines could occur in areas "where supply and demand were more balanced before the interest rate rise and which may now become unbalanced", while "in the large markets price falls are not foreseeable widespread”.

On the contrary, the spokeswoman for Fotocasa, María Matos, indicated that "there is a very strong latent demand that continues to keep the price rising and will surely continue with prices stressed during the last months of 2022." “We estimate that the housing offer has been reduced by more than 35% compared to the previous year,” added Matos.