Data recently published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on Spanish housing prices in the third quarter of last year shows prices recovering to where they were back in 2008, at least in nominal terms.

It has taken fifteen years for the average Spanish house price to get back to where it was at the tail end of the last boom, reveal the latest Spanish property price figures from the INE, as illustrated in the chart above.

Although the average Spanish house price has recovered to where it was fifteen years ago in nominal terms, in real terms (adjusted for inflation) the average price is still 35pc below the level of Q1 2008. Prices have risen 50pc in nominal terms since 2015 but anyone who invested in the bubble period that was already deflating by 2008 is probably still nursing negative equity.

Moreover, the INE’s house price index is the only one that has finally recovered all the ground it lost since 2008. The other most-watched indices published by the Housing Ministry, the notaries, and the property portal Idealista (asking prices) are still below where they were fifteen years ago, as you can see from the next chart.

Regional differences

The INE publish a property price index for Spain as a whole, plus indices for each of Spain’s autonomous regions. Though Spain as a whole is back to where it was fifteen years ago, prices are higher in Andalusia, the Balearics, the Canaries, and Madrid, but still down in the Valencian region, Catalonia, and Murcia.