2020 was marked by the economic and sanitary crisis. Nevertheless, luxury housing in the main cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona, remained stable despite the crisis. This is what can be deducted from the report «The pandemic’s impact in Madrid and Barcelona’s prime areas», conducted by real estate portal Fotocasa.
Housing prices in areas considered to be luxury areas have remained, generally, more stable than in average priced areas within Madrid and Barcelona, where the price drops were steeper during the pandemic. Despite the drop prime prices had at the end of 2020 in most of the analysed regions, it was less accentuated than within conventional housing markets, thus showing a higher resilience before the crisis.
In terms of multifamily housing prices within Madrid’s prime areas, the report notes that they have remained constant in the last two years. In 2020, the monthly variations were actually lower than in the previous year.
The analysis of the yoy variation on the multifamily unit individual pricing by area, showed that for the prime dwellings within the Northern zone, the yoy variation by individual pricing moved between a maximum high of 4% in February 2019 and a minimum low of -2%, registered in February 2020. On the other hand, luxury dwelling prices in the North-eastern zone reached their maximum variation in February 2019, at around 2% and their minimum in July the same year at -3%. The Central zone reflected the same trend, but in a more accentuated fashion, with a maximum of 2% in May 2020 and a minimum of -3% the following month.
In terms of end of year results, the Northern and Central zones worsened from 2019 to 2020, going from 2% to -4% and from 0% to -1%, respectively. The North-eastern zone, on the other hand, inverted the percentages, going from -3% in 2019 to 2% in 2020. The real estate portal observed that the Central zone’s prime dwellings presented a greater stability in terms of price evolution, when compared to the rest.
The prime areas of Barcelona showed the same trend. In terms of the high standing dwellings in the Eixample area, housing prices remained stable in 2020, with oscillations between 1% and 3%.
The minimum was reached in July, with -3%. Nevertheless, the Pedralbes prime area showed the same type of behaviour, more constant even, with monthly variations which never surpassed 1% with a maximum of 1% and a minimum of -1%.