Housing prices rose 7.4% in 2022, despite a slowdown in the latter part of the year

Signs of a slowdown in real estate market they are beginning to be more intensively reflected in the price statistics of recent months. Specifically, apartments fell 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter, which was the first decline in two years. The slowing down of the trend is evident, although many future owners would like it to be even stronger. And that is that, if we take as a reference the movement of prices in their average for the year, the growth was 7.4% last year, thus recording its ninth consecutive annual growth and the strongest since 2007, when the prices of free apartments increased by 9, 8 percent.

The increase in 2022 doubles, moreover, compared to 2021 (+3.7%) and is also a consequence of acceleration house prices Used as well as new apartments.

Namely, the average price of new construction rose by 7.9 percent, which is the highest growth since 2007, when it rose by 11.9 percent. For his part, he apartment prices used grew by 7.3%, twice as much as in 2021 and has the biggest jump also since 2007, when it grew by 8.2%.

alarm signals

It is true that the data for the last quarter makes it somewhat easier for those who embarked on the adventure buy a houseespecially second hand. But the problem is that the cuts, at least for now, don’t seem to be compensating loss of purchasing power Spaniards originating from inflationary crisis. A situation that is added to the sudden growth of financing costs, with increasingly expensive mortgages and increasing demands from banks for the approval of this type of loan, especially in the conditions of an unstoppable Euribor growthwhich is already moving close to 4% in daily rate.

This combination of factors also influenced the decline in demand, which is also visible in other references, such as the number of apartment sales. The market continues to show strong resilience, with close to 650,000 homes sold last year, not seen since the bubble days. But December was the month with the least activity in almost two years (since April 2021), according to the latest INE statistics. And the first recorded a decrease in the number of operations on an interannual level.