Neither Madrid nor Barcelona: the Spanish city where the price of housing in Spain increases the most is Malaga. The Andalusian city leads the national ranking of rising prices, which indicates that the global trend of rising housing prices is not limited only to large cities such as Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, but that other cities are literally becoming unaffordable.
The data. The price of real estate in Malaga has increased by a brutal 9.8% compared to 2021, which places it in 69th place in the world and first in Spain. It is what illustrates the Global Residential Cities Index of the real estate consultant Knight Frank, which classifies the 150 main cities in the world by the evolution of prices. Madrid ranks 71st, with an increase of 9.5%. Valencia (up 8.6%) and Seville (7.9%) occupy 80th and 84th. Barcelona registers an increase of 6.1%.
Spain, one of the countries where the price rises the most. From a general perspective, housing in our country has increased by 6.7% in just one year (data from the first quarter), according to the Global House Price Index. This indicates that, despite the fact that the price of residential properties in these four cities has been higher than the Spanish average, there is a rising trend in recent years after the pandemic.
Why? There are many reasons at play. First, the shortage of flats at a time of high demand and second, the escalation in construction costs due to lack of raw materials after Covid and the war in Ukraine. As several experts comment in this Business Insider article, the difference with respect to the 2008 bubble is that there was excess supply and demand fell (as did prices) when the requirements for borrowing were tightened.
Now it is quite the opposite: there is a hunger to buy again but now there is no longer an excess of flats, but rather a shortage. People have bought so much in such a short time (out of the pandemic), that the market has run out of homes. If demand is high and there is no supply, prices go up.
Living in Malaga is too expensive. The latest data from Idealista real estate portal June confirm that the average value per square meter in the province has grown to 2,632 euros. Where is it more expensive to buy? Benahavis and Marbella. In the first municipality, where they have the highest per capita income, the average price per square meter is €3,958, while in the second, famous for luxury tourism, it is €3,708. In both there are increases compared to 2021 of 14.2% and 14.2%. Activity has also skyrocketed, since throughout the province the buy and sell has exceeded 3,000 operations, 56% more than in 2021.
salaries do not cover. It is the great problem that we face. Although the price of housing continues to rise, wages remain or fall. In Xataka we have talked about how in the last five years the price per square meter in the sale of homes has increased in Spain by 15.6%, while salaries have barely increased 5.9% and, in fact, during 2021 they decreased by 2.5%. Studies like this one from the Infojobs employment platform and the Fotocasa real estate portal prove it. And the phenomenon is further aggravated by the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.
In Magnet we have also told how families in Spain spend more than 30% of their income to pay for housing, a percentage from which it is considered that they are suffering from overexertion. But it’s getting even worse. If we take into account that in Spain there are already some five million people, approximately 30% of wage earners, who receive a gross income of less than 1,336.6 euros per month and the rent of a home in Madrid or Barcelona of about 60 square meter it costs more than a thousand eurosWe have a huge problem.
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