Still Discovering Spain...

An article in El Pais today stated that Spanish house prices surged 4.2% in the second quarter of the year compared with the previous three-month period, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Year-on-year, the recent numbers represent a 4% rise in real estate prices. This is the biggest increase since 2007, right before the beginning of the global economic crisis and the subsequent property crash in Spain.

This significant increase in price tags, comparable only to the days of the real estate bubble, affects both new and existing homes and points to a nationwide housing recovery on the back of improved forecasts for the Spanish economy as a whole.

One of the keys to this expansion was the surge in existing house prices, which rose 4.6% in the second quarter of 2015. New homes appreciated 1.5% from the first quarter.

The property crash sent prices tumbling more than 36%. There was a modest uptick last year, but it varied greatly by region. This time, every Spanish region has recorded price hikes, a fact that is accelerating the pace of expansion.

All of Spain’s regions registered quarterly rises, according to the INE data. The biggest year-on-year price hikes are taking place in areas where the real estate sector is detecting the greatest demand and concentrating its housing starts: the Balearic Islands (7.3%), Catalonia (5.5%), Madrid (6.4%) and Cantabria (5.1%). Prices appreciated the least in Asturias, Extremadura and Galicia, with rises of under one percent.