In our country, housing is rising in value month by month, a fact that shows the solidity of this asset which continues to be the most preferred one by the Spanish people. The Ministry of Transport has recently shared data that has turned out to be very significant. This data reveals that in the Community of Madrid housing prices have increased 38% during the last decade, whereas salaries have hardly risen 11%. This means that, in our community, housing has risen in value during the last ten years up to the point of trebling the salaries, a fact which allows us to get an idea of the current importance of real estate assets in the Community of Madrid. However, the instance of our community is not an isolated case because something similar happens in most communities of our national territory. Spanish people continue to believe that investing in housing is a safe value. Some weeks ago, we wrote an article in this blog about the purchase and sale of housing and how it has reached its upper limit. In our country this last month of January, the number of home mortgages reached nearly a 30% increase in the interannual rate. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 36.185 mortgages were granted. Eleven months have already passed with consecutive rises in the giving of mortgage loans: these facts and figures confirm the good health of Spanish housing as well as the growing interest shown by investors in this product.

AN AVERAGE OF ELEVEN YEARS TO PAY FOR A HOUSE

According to real estate experts, the imbalance between housing prices and salaries has been taking place in our country during the last decades. At the end of 2021, the European Commission gave an assessment of this after having analyzed the data of 2020 and then came to the conclusion that, in Spain, it takes an average of eleven years to pay for a house. If we compare ourselves with the rest of the countries in the European Union, we can say we are more or less placed in the middle part of the list. In spite of the fact that in 2008, after the burst of the housing bubble, prices dropped and hence, in Spain, it took an average of around six years to purchase a house. Nowadays, prices have once again recovered and this is why the average time to pay for a house has become higher. Small investors with capital invest their money on property which is made profitable through rent. This buyer profile does not pay attention to the fact that the salaries should be in accordance with housing prices as the necessary money to invest in property is available. This circumstance together with the high regard, in Spain, for housing as a safe value has caused the revaluation we have mentioned.

A SIMILAR PICTURE IN OUR LARGE CITIES

The facts and figures offered by the Ministry of Transport show that nearly every Spanish city with a population of more than half a million has experienced a considerable rise in housing prices in comparison with the salaries. For instance, in Seville the difference is double; in Malaga it is six times more. The case of Ibiza is highly exceptional as it is calculated that, in its city, housing prices have increased up to eleven times more than the average salary. On the other hand, Saragossa is the only Spanish city which is different from the rest because property prices in its provincial capital are lower than they were a decade ago. If we take a total valuation we can observe that, in Spain, housing prices have increased 10,6%, whereas the salaries have only risen 8,1%. Apart from the salary problem, the high demand to purchase housing together with the scarce offer in the Spanish market continues to be one of the great difficulties that , currently, Spanish buyers have to face.

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Picture 02: xb100