What do real estate professionals think about the Spanish housing market?
What do real estate professionals think about the Spanish housing market?
The real estate market in Spain has begun to recover, which instills confidence in real estate agents for the coming months. According to the Real Estate Market Sensitivity Index (ESI) survey, prepared by the Idealista portal, one can observe growth in the number of home purchase and sale transactions and stagnation in the rental segment.
The sales confidence index increased by 2 points compared to last summer and by 20 points compared to last year. It now stands at 64 points — an indicator close to pre-pandemic period values (2019).
The rental confidence index stands at 58.2 points, which is 0.4 points lower than the previous quarter’s indicator. Despite the absence of improvements or signs of progress in the last quarter of 2021, the annual indicator is better than in 2020 (46.8), and the confidence level exceeds the values recorded in the months before and after the pandemic began.
Stable prices with growing activity
Real estate agents’ confidence has grown, and 88% of respondents believe they will be able to maintain or even increase the number of purchase and sale transactions conducted in the past quarter. In the context of improvement after the most difficult months of the pandemic, the same percentage predicts a comparable number of sold properties as in the last 3 months.
Regarding prices, 87% of real estate agents are betting on their stability, while 13% expect a decrease.
Rental rates stabilize while the number of rental transactions decreases
Agencies that believe they will maintain or expand the number of rental transactions comprise 73%, while another 70% believe they can attract new properties to this market. It is necessary to monitor rental trends to determine whether supply has slowed down and how this will affect rental rates, which, according to 57% of respondents, will remain stable. The share of specialists who believe that rent will become more expensive is 19%, while 16% believe that rates will decrease.