December saw a stabilisation in the evolution of residential prices in Spain, according to the Tinsa IMIE General statistic. This revealed that the average value of housing, both new and used, experienced a slight increase of 0.1 % in December, bringing the year-on-year change to 3.7 % at the end of the year.
The final data for December indicate that the year-on-year change in the fourth quarter reached 4.0%, slightly below the provisional 4.1% recorded in the Local Markets statistics published at the end of 2023.
In the words of Cristina Arias, director of Tinsa's research department: "The gradual slowdown in residential prices continued in December, in line with the decline in demand observed since the end of 2022. This is partly due to the impact of the rise in benchmark interest rates on the economy," she said.
Arias also pointed out that the contractionary monetary policy measures implemented by the ECB between 2022 and 2023 continue to affect the economy, and geopolitical risks add uncertainty about the evolution of inflation. However, she stressed that "the economy has shown resilience, keeping residential indicators close to their average levels of activity".
The monthly change in prices remained between 0.1% and 0.2% in all the groups analysed. In the capitals and large cities, a slight fall of 0.1 % was recorded with respect to the previous month. On the other hand, the Mediterranean coast experienced the largest monthly increase, with 0.6%, although this figure represents a moderation compared to the previous month's growth.
Since the low recorded in August 2015, after the financial crisis, the average price of new and used housing in Spain has increased by 39.1%. This evolution places values at March 2011 levels, still 18.2% below the peaks reached in December 2007.