While the supply of empty homes remains massive, by any standards, IPE’s forecast represents a significant drop from the almost 1 million homes that were empty in 2010. The group, which regularly tracks the market, optimistically predicts a total of 114,000 empty homes owned by banks and developers will be sold by the end of the year.
The overhang of empty homes remains one of the biggest issues facing the property market. While many of the homes are likely unsaleable, there is still a large supply available to meet demand.
The impact of the recent sales surge on the supply will be partially offset by a restart of in construction, IPE predicts.
“In 2014, new construction will revive in those places where the supply does not meet the demand or the client´s requirements,” says IPE professor Jose Antonio Perez, author of the report.
A total of 63,000 building permits will be issued this year, primarily in coastal areas, the report forecasts.
Valencia remains the region with the most unsold homes, with 164,000, followed by Andalusia with 102,500.
Meanwhile, in Alicante, empty homes are being regularly vandalized and stripped of anything of value, El Pais reports.
“Copper, doors, iron … they’ve taken everything,” Moisés Cruz, a member of the Plataforma Anticorrupcion Defensa de la Huerta, a group opposed to the rampant development of the area.
The group has been documenting the half-finished and empty developments around the region. Many are inhabited by squatters and drug addicts, the group says.
“These buildings look like they were bombed in a war,” notes Cruz. “They are the product of overly ambitious zoning plans.”
Campbell Ferguson says:
Only sales to individual occupiers or with long term tenants take properties off the market completely. Sales to investors only shuffle them around.
Skip says:
Nope. Anyone can get on idealista or kyero and see that the huge number of unsold homes is staying unbelievably high. There are plenty of non-hype articles about the slow property sales, but they don’t get as much attention…
http://news.kyero.com/2014/08/13-unsold-homes-per-1000-population-in-the-spanish-capitals/14944
Juan Miguel says:
Campbell you have hit the nail on the head. If one company owns 10,000 properties it is clearly not OFF THE MARKET!
Many large portfolios are owned by large investment companies, I really do not think they will just bulldoze them down and get rid of the surplus. These assets could pose a greater danger if in the near future failing an increase in value they dump them onto the already depressed market. Lets get real there are still at least 2,000,000 properties out there just waiting to be sold.
If the leader of the country lies continually through his teeth no wonder everyone else does. Wakey! Wakey!
Juan Miguel.
Bernard Hornung says:
Dear Mark
I believe that there are 11 million empty homes in Western Europe of which 3.4 million are in Spain.
Yours ever
Bernard
UBEDA says:
these homes are being bought cheaply by investors, they will be finished/renovated and put back on the market. Abandoned and bankrupt developments are being hoovered up on the coasts; i don’t think there are any left in the Marbella area. Next year they will appear on the market with flags, showhouses and hype and will slowly star to sell….