Home sales plummet during pandemic
Nearly half as many properties sold in May compared to same time last year in lowest figure since 2014
property
Rent on the verge of €1,000 per month in Catalonia
Some need half of salary to pay for housing costs, which are expected to slightly decrease
Catalan Government collected nearly 3 billion euros in taxes in 2016
The Catalan Government’s tax take rose by 8.3% in 2016, totalling 2.9 billion euros. More than half of this came from the real estate sector, which contributed 1.6 billion euros to the treasury due to the growth registered in both the execution of new mortgages and in the buying and selling of previously owned houses. The wealth tax also contributed to this 225.45 million euros, an increase compared to 2015, not only because the fee grew but also because there were more declarants in 2016 than in the previous years. The figures, which include the Catalan Tax Agency’s own taxes and those transferred by the Spanish state, include the new taxes applied in 2016 for the first time. In particular, the treasury benefited from the taxes applied to empty houses, which represented 11.49 million euros and the 2.99 million obtained by charging Co2 emissions produced by public aviation.
Spanish property prices dropped by 41.7% between 2006 and 2011
A research study carried out by Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) has concluded that there is a constant trend of decline. Between 2006, when prices peaked, and the end of 2011 Spanish property prices have dropped by 41.7% as average. The coordinator of the study, José García-Montalvo, pointed out that there has been an accelerated fall from the second half of 2010 and the same period in 2011 when prices dropped 19.7% in Spain. García-Montalvo added that this trend would not change in the short or mid- term if the credit market does not recover.
Catalonia’s new housing stock decreases for the first time since 2006
In larger cities, the new housing stock is much smaller and in Barcelona it is almost non existent. However, in other towns and rural areas the current stock will not be completely absorbed until 2015, according to a study from CatalunyaCaixa. Prices will stabilise in larger cities and still drop by 10% where the larger stocks are concentrated. The Catalan housing market is now in better shape than in the rest of Spain. In Catalonia the new housing stock decreased by 2,000 units, while in Spain as a whole it increased by 2%.