Mark Stücklin
Last October was the first month since the start of the Civil War in 1939 with no requests for building licences in Barcelona, according to a new report by Forcadell, a real estate consultancy.
That illustrates how badly developers have been hit by the property crash, and lack of financing. The pipeline of new housing for Barcelona has run bone dry.
Everyone knows that demand will return when the crisis passes, and given the long lead-times in the building industry, now is the time to get planning permission for new build projects that will be ready for delivery in 3 or more years time. However, without any financing, developers can’t even start working on new promotions in the Catalan capital.
And one of the few new projects in the city centre, pictured above, does it’s best to undermine Barcelona’s architectural heritage. If that’s what developers are going to build in iconic locations of Barcelona, perhaps it’s best they build nothing.
Going back to the report by Forcadell, rental demand in the Catalan capital increased 3.6pc in the second half of last year, and the stock of homes on the market also grew, but rental prices and house prices kept falling.
Forcadell do not expect any big changes in the market in the coming months. “Prices will continue trending down whilst the supply and demand for housing remains stable,” they conclude, whilst forecasting that house prices will bottom out in the first half of 2014 as demand for property for sale in Barcelona starts to recover.
