HOME prices rose faster than the national average in several of Spain's key coastal hotspots in the second quarter of this year, with the Canary Islands leading the field.
Across the country, residential property values increased by 3.3% year on year, and the figure nearly doubled off the mainland.
Latest Home Price Index (IPV) and National Statistics Institue (INE) data show that the cost of buying a house or flat in the Canaries shot up by 6.7% between April and June inclusive, based upon the same period in 2020, and in the Balearic Islands, by 5.7%.
Cantabria, on the northern coast, reported a rise of 5.3%, whilst Murcia in the south-east jumped by 4.4% and the Mediterranean region of the Comunidad Valenciana was just behind at 4.3%.
The national rise of 3.3% is the highest seen since 2019, the last 'normal' year before the pandemic reached Europe.
New builds were 6% more expensive as at the end of June and second-hand properties had gone up by 2.9%.
In Comunidad Valenciana, brand-new homes climbed in value at a slower pace than the average for Spain – 5.3% - but existing residential properties rose by well above the typical national figure of 2.9%.
For Cantabria, a similar pattern was seen – newly-built houses and apartments up by 4.3% and pre-loved homes by 5.5%, although in Murcia, both types saw above-average rises with new properties experiencing a 6.8% hike and second-hand homes valued at 4% more than in the second quarter of 2020.
This was also the case for the Canary Islands, where growth in either type of residential property price was comfortably above the national average and with very little difference between them – 6.5% for new and 6.4% for second-hand.
Price growth returns to normal after 'pandemic year' slowdown
All these regions saw greater growth in home values in the second quarter of 2021 than they did in the first quarter, and typically slightly above the mean figure for Spain as a whole.
Nationwide, home values have been rising consistently for the last 29 quarters, or since March 2014, even during the first few months of the Covid crisis.
Growth slowed somewhat in the second quarter of 2020 – after a hike of 3.2% between January and March inclusive, residential property values only rose by a national average figure of 0.9% from April to June, the lowest increase seen since spring 2013 – but since the latter end of 2020, home price recovery has been consistent.
This is particularly true of pre-owned homes – during the second quarter of 2020, these only went up in value by 0.7%, compared to 2.9% in the second quarter of 2021.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com