The local market house price index published by Tinsa, an appraisal company, illustrates the two-speed nature of the Spanish property market at the tail end of the crash.
Annualised house prices rose in four provincial capitals, and five provinces, in the first quarter, according to Tinsa’s IMIE local market index.
Provincially, house prices rose in Teruel (1.2 per cent), Palencia (0.8 per cent), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (0.5 per cent), the Balearics (0.5 per cent) and La Coruña (0.2 per cent), whilst falling by double-digits in Lerida (-13.2 per cent), Navarre (-12.8%), Asturias (-11.9%) and Alava (-11%).
House prices rose for the second quarter in a row in the cities of Palma de Mallorca (1.8 per cent), Barcelona (1.7 per cent) and Malaga (0.1 per cent).
“Most areas with positive figures are characterized by improvements of less than 1 per cent, closer to stabilization than increases,” TINSA points out.
Nationally, prices fell 3.1 per cent in Q1, compared to 4.5 per cent in Q4 last year, and 4.7 per cent in Q3. It looks like price declines are getting shallower, say Tinsa.
By autonomous region, only the Balearics posted an increase in house prices over 12 months, whilst eight regions saw prices fall between two and four per cent. The smallest decreases were in Extremadura (down 2.1 per cent), Galicia (down 2.5 per cent), the Canaries (down 2.8 per cent) and the region of Madrid (down 2.9 per cent).
At the other extreme, prices fell the most in the two Spanish regions that only have one province, namely Navarre and Asturias – where prices fell 12.8 per cent and 11.7 per cent respectively.
Peak to present price falls since 2007 were greatest in Castilla la Mancha (down 52.8 per cent), Catalonia (down 51 per cent), Aragon (down 49.6 per cent) and Madrid (down 48.5 per cent).
Just five regions have seen price falls of less than 40 per cent after seven years of crisis. These are the Basque Country, Asturias, Galicia, the Balearics and Extremadura.
After seven years of crisis 30 Spanish provinces have peak-to-present accumulated price declines of more than 40 per cent, ten of them above 50 per cent, led by Toledo (-57%), Guadalajara (-54%), Girona, home to the Costa Brava (-53%) and Zaragoza (-53%).
