Lucas Fox Spanish Real Estate Market Analysis 2019: Barcelona
Barcelona Province saw price rises in Sant Cugat del Vallès and Maresme in the year to December 2019 but prices were down in Barcelona City.
Market Analysis: Barcelona 2019
After two general elections in nine months, Spain now has its first ever coalition Government, made up of the Socialist Party (PSOE), headed up by Pedro Sánchez, and Unidas Podemos with its leader Pablo Iglesias. The new coalition will hopefully bring some level of stability after a fairly turbulent year politically and will be addressing political, territorial and social dimensions, which could be challenging but could see some positive outcomes.
Read our full analysis of Spain’s property market here
Barcelona City
Average Sales Prices – Barcelona City
Average property prices in Barcelona City have continued a slight downward trend since June 2019, showing small year-on-year decreases. However, average prices are now just over 1% higher than they were in December 2007, around the time of the peak. Prices averaged €4,115 per square metre in December 2019, registering an annual decrease of 2.5%. Average prices in the key districts of Barcelona Old Town, Eixample, Gràcia and Sant Martí have also all showed annual decreases, ending December 2019 on €4,320 per square metre (1% decrease), €4,632 per square metre (2.7% decrease), €4,217 per square metre (5.6% decrease) and €3,791 per square metre (1.8% decrease) respectively. The district of Nou Barris was the only district which registered an increase, of 3.4%, ending the year on €2,591 per square metre. (Idealista, resale property prices)
However, since December 2014 anyone investing in property in Barcelona will have seen excellent returns with prices going up by 34% across the city. Breaking it down by regions, prices have risen by 32% in Barcelona Old Town, 38% in Eixample, 40% in Gràcia and 28% in Sant Martí (which incorporates Diagonal Mar) in the five years since December 2014. (Idealista, resale property prices)
Average Rental Prices – Barcelona City
Average rental prices in Barcelona City showed an annual increase of 1.9% in December 2019, ending the year on €16.5 per square metre. Average rental prices in Barcelona Old Town, Eixample and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi all increased, ending the year on €19 per square metre (3.7% increase), €17 per square metre (3% increase) and €16.9 (2.7% increase) per square metre respectively. Average rental prices across the city as a whole have risen by almost 39% since December 2014. (Idealista)
Volume of Sales – Barcelona City
The number of sales transactions in Barcelona City in the first nine months of 2019 (11,132 sales) decreased by 1.1% compared to the same period in 2018 (11,257 sales). Compared to the first nine months of 2014 (8,899 sales), however, the number of transactions is up by just over 25% and is now almost 5% above the number of transactions in the same period in 2007 (10,620 sales). (Ministry of Development, Spain)
New Homes Sales – Barcelona City
The number of sales transactions of new homes in Barcelona City in the first nine months of 2019 (557 sales) decreased by 10.3% compared to the same period in 2018 (621 sales). Compared to the first nine months of 2014 (937 sales) the number of sales of new homes is down by almost 41% and is still just under 62% below the same period in 2007 (1,461 sales). (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Proportionally, new homes sales in Barcelona City represented 5% of the total number of sales in the first nine months of 2019, slightly down from the same period in 2018 when sales of new homes represented 5.5% of the total number of sales. The proportion is still significantly down on the figure for the first nine months of 2007 when 13.8% of the total sales were for new homes. (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Maresme
Average Sales Prices – Maresme
Looking at average property prices in Maresme’s key towns, Teià has seen the one of the greatest increases in the year to December 2019, with prices rising by 5.9% and ending the year on €2,513 per square metre. Alella and Cabrils also saw year-on-year price increases, of 3.9% (€2,565 per square metre) and 0.9% (€1,976 per square metre) respectively. However average prices in Premià de Dalt and Sant Vicenç de Montalt have gone down, by 3.2% (€2,187 per square metre) and 2.2% (€2,437 per square metre) respectively. Since the end 2014, Teià has seen prices rise by 19.5%, Alella by 14.4%, Sant Vicenç de Montalt by 14.1%, Premià de Dalt by 9.1% and Cabrils by 3.8%. (Idealista, resale property prices)
Volume of Sales – Maresme
The number of sales transactions in the Maresme region in the first nine months of 2019 (4,323 sales) increased by 10.6% compared to the same period in 2018 (3,910 sales). Compared to the first nine months of 2014 (2,009 sales) the number of transactions has more than doubled. (Generalitat de Catalunya)
New Homes Sales – Maresme
Sales of new homes in the Maresme region represented 20.3% of the total number of sales in the first nine months of 2019, a slightly larger proportion than in the same period in 2018 (19.4%). In the first nine months of 2014 just over 31% of the total sales were for new homes. (Generalitat de Catalunya)
Sant Cugat del Vallès
Average Sales Prices – Sant Cugat del Vallès
Average property prices in Sant Cugat del Vallès showed an annual increase of 3.4% in December 2019, ending the year on €3,581 per square metre. Since September 2014 prices in Sant Cugat have increased by 34.3%. (Idealista, resale property prices)
Average Rental Prices – Sant Cugat del Vallès
Average rental prices in Sant Cugat del Vallès showed an annual increase of 6.5% in December 2019, ending the year on €13 per square metre. (Idealista)
Volume of Sales – Sant Cugat del Vallès
The number of transactions in Sant Cugat del Vallès in the first nine months of 2019 (694 sales) decreased by 7.6% compared to the same period in 2018 (751 sales). However, compared to the first nine months of 2014 (516 sales) the number of transactions has risen by 34.5% and it is now also surpassing the number of sales in the same period in 2007 (656 sales), by almost 6%. (Ministry of Development, Spain)
New Homes Sales – Sant Cugat del Vallès
Sales of new homes in Sant Cugat del Vallès represented 21% of the total number of sales in the first nine months of 2019, a larger proportion than in the same period in 2018 (16.8%). They represent a smaller proportion than in the first nine months of 2007 when just over 24% of the total sales were for new homes. (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Barcelona Province
Volume of Sales – Barcelona Province
Looking at Barcelona Province as a whole, the number of sales transactions in the first nine months of 2019 increased by almost 74% when compared to the same period in 2014, rising from 25,007 to 43,498. However, year-on-year the number of sales transactions in the first nine months of 2019 registered a slight decrease, of 2.3%, and it is still 17.5% below the number of sales in the same period in 2007 (52,706 sales) (Ministry of Development, Spain)
New Homes Sales – Barcelona Province
Sales of new homes in Barcelona Province represented 7.7% of the total number of sales in the first nine months of 2019, a similar proportion to the same period in 2018 (7.4%). However, the proportion has reduced significantly since the first nine months of 2007 when almost 30% of the total sales were for new homes. (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Prime Sales – Barcelona Province
Latest official data shows that the number of prime market sales transactions (over €900,000) in Barcelona Province in the first six months of 2019 (for which data is available) increased by almost 21% compared to the prime sales in the same period in 2018, from 245 to 296 sales. The number of prime sales in the whole of 2018 (529 sales) was up by 82% compared to the number of prime sales in the whole of 2014 (291 sales). (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Value of Sales – Barcelona Province
The total value of sales transactions in Barcelona Province in the first nine months of 2019 (€8.98 billion) registered a 3% increase when compared to amount of trading in the same period in 2018 (€8.71 billion). Compared to the first nine months of 2014 (€4.17 billion) the total value of sales transactions has more than doubled but it is still 38% below the total value in the same period in 2007 (€14.37 billion). (Ministry of Development, Spain)
Tourism & Foreign Buyers, Barcelona
The number of passengers arriving at Barcelona airport in 2019 was almost 52.7 million, an increase of 5% over passenger arrivals in 2018. (Aena)
International tourism in Catalonia in the first eleven months of 2019 increased by 0.8% over the same period in 2018, with the region hosting almost 18.4 million international visitors. (INE)
Foreign buyers in Barcelona Province accounted for 9.6% of the total sales in the third quarter of 2019, a slightly larger proportion than in the third quarter of 2018 (8.8%) and larger than the proportion in the whole of 2012 when they accounted for just over 6% of all buyers. (Spanish Land Registry)
Lucas Fox Barcelona Buyer Profile
Lucas Fox Maresme Buyer Profile
Note the following figures are provisional:
INE (Tourism) (from January 2019)
Ministry of Development, Spain (from Q3 2019)
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