The shortage of newly built housing continues to drive prices up, especially in the city of Barcelona, where the square meter exceeded 5,000 euros for the first time in June after rising 5.9% in the last year, according to a Appraisal Society (ST) study. Specifically, buying a new apartment in the Catalan capital costs an average of 5,047 euros/m², ahead of what it costs in Madrid (4,269 euros/m²) and in San Sebastián (4,185 euros/m²), the second and most faces, respectively.
In a context of slowdown in sales, first-hand housing rose by 6.4% year-on-year, to 2,809 euros/m², still below the maximum levels reached at the end of 2007 (2,905 euros/m²). However, the rise in prices in June was less than that registered in December, 7.1%, which is mainly attributed to "the volatility of the macroeconomic environment, the increase in the cost of financing and the tightening of financial conditions, as well as the impasse that the next electoral elections suppose", they indicate from ST.
Despite this, the price continues to rise in the provincial capitals due mainly "to the scarcity of the supply of new housing compared to the demand", according to the director of Institutions and Major Accounts at the Appraisal Society, Consuelo Villanueva. In this sense, she adds that the production of this type of housing has not been able to respond to the increase in demand that occurred as a result of the new consumer requirements derived from the confinement. To this is added the stored savings from the pandemic and a period in which financing was easily accessible.
The greater attraction that this type of housing has gained contrasts with the few developments that have been built in the last four years, in which the number of visas granted "has barely exceeded 100,000 units per year," Villanueva points out. A factor that drives prices up, as do the increase in construction costs and the lack of labor.
The ST statistics, for which 35,099 homes have been taken into account, include the values of current offers for newly built properties.
