The Investor's Guide to Real Estate

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Spain

Expectations

Spain's GDP growth forecast is maintained for 2023 (2.4%), revised downwards to 1.5% in 2024 and is expected to accelerate in 2025 (2.5%). The growth bias is negative due to the geopolitical context and uncertainty in EMU activity and economic policy measures.

Economic activity is expected to accelerate in 2025, in line with the recovery in the EMU. The tourism sector could have a greater capacity for growth. Inflation falls in line with expectations. Consumption could show moderate strength. The working-age population continues to increase, allowing for employment growth.

For 2024, we expect the economy’s growth rate to moderate to 1.4%. In the first chart we show the breakdown of this forecast according to its main determining factors.1 As can be seen, in the absence of external shocks we could have expected a growth rate of almost 2.5%, thanks in part to the support of European funds.

In the Spanish market, around 600,000 homes are sold annually, of which an average of 100,000 used to be new units. However, in 2023 there were 80,000 new homes, and the forecast for 2024 is around 60,000. So, Spain is one of the European countries that constructs the fewest homes per 1,000 inhabitants. Therefore, new housing will continue to be a scarce commodity, and even though sales will slow down due to mortgage accessibility, the market will not collapse due to the balance between supply and demand.

Property transactions may decrease by 10% in 2024, but the average purchase price is expected to rise between 1% and 3% (and January new forecast already predicted that prices of newly built properties will increase by 4.1% in the first semester of the year).

Here is a summary of the Spanish Real Estate Market Trends for 2024:

  • Spain economic growth (higher than the EU average).
  • Decrease in mortgage rates – growing optimism (=> more transactions =>higher prices).
  • Limited offer (especially for newly built), including for rental.
  • Price increase (to continue in the following years).
  • Increase in buy-to-let investments.
  • Record of foreign investors & buyers, including for repeat purchases.

Sources:

https://www.bbvaresearch.com/en/publicaciones/spanish-economic-outlook-november-2023/

https://www.oecd.org/economy/spain-economic-snapshot/

https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/spain/

Università Bocconi

Money value calulation

2024.2025.2026.2027.
Money value0000
Bank savings0000
Real Estate Investment value0000
{ "2024": { "1": 1.0092, "2": 1.0092, "3": 1.0092, "4": 1.0092, "5": 1.0092, "6": 1.0092, "7": 1.0092, "8": 1.0092, "9": 1.0092, "10": 1.0092, "11": 1.0092, "12": 1.0092, "total": 1.1099 }, "2025": { "1": 1.0081, "2": 1.0081, "3": 1.0081, "4": 1.0081, "5": 1.0081, "6": 1.0081, "7": 1.0081, "8": 1.0081, "9": 1.0081, "10": 1.0081, "11": 1.0081, "12": 1.0081, "total": 1.0969 }, "2026": { "1": 1.0146, "2": 1.0146, "3": 1.0146, "4": 1.0146, "5": 1.0146, "6": 1.0146, "7": 1.0146, "8": 1.0146, "9": 1.0146, "10": 1.0146, "11": 1.0146, "12": 1.0146, "total": 1.1751 }, "2027": { "1": 1.0192, "2": 1.0192, "3": 1.0192, "4": 1.0192, "5": 1.0192, "6": 1.0192, "7": 1.0192, "8": 1.0192, "9": 1.0192, "10": 1.0192, "11": 1.0192, "12": 1.0192, "total": 1.2301 } }

Inflation

The highest inflation was recorded in 2022. In accordance with official data and economic trends, it is predicted that in the coming period inflation in Spain will have a slight annual decline.

2010 2.04%
2011 3.05%
2012 2.44%
2013 1.53%
2014 -0.19%
2015 -0.63%
2016 -0.34%
2017 2.04%
2018 1.74%
2019 0.78%
2020 -0.34%
2021 3.01%
2022 8.32%
2023 3.49%
2024 3.93%
2025 2.06%
2026 1.76%
2027 1.70%

Sources:

The World Bank (2024)

Import/Export

The top exports of Spain are Cars (€33.6B), Refined Petroleum (€17.2B), Packaged Medicaments (€12.7B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) (€10.6B), and Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures (€7.57B), exporting mostly to France (€65.2B), Germany (€39.2B), Portugal (€34.9B), Italy (€32.1B), and United Kingdom (€22.6B).

in 000. Export Import
2020 Q1 57,422,814 63,705,536
Q2 89,005,362 69,772,730
Q3 68,907,377 87,974,312
Q4 71,778,518 81,907,118
2021 Q1 90,058,459 97,993,758
Q2 75,649,106 94,074,008
Q3 86,456,121 90,154,257
Q4 108,070,151 109,753,009
2022 Q1 70,261,771 105,600,053
Q2 105,392,656 110,191,359
Q3 85,875,497 128,556,586
Q4 89,778,929 114,782,666
2023 Q1 70,369,640 81,556,850
Q2 73,568,260 92,194,700
Q3 83,164,120 99,286,600
Q4 76,766,880 81,556,850

Currency: EUR

Values: in .000

Sources:

World Bank (2024)

GDP

A slight increase in GDP was recorded, while gross investments are in permanent decline. The consumption of the population is around 1.1 billion euros.

in 000. Consumption Investments GDP
2020 919,705,600 247,413,760 1,177,600,000
2021 1,032,516,000 309,888,200 1,334,000,000
2022 1,009,847,200 296,160,880 1,306,400,000
2023 1,100,350,000 285,485,200 1,315,600,000

Currency: EUR

Values: in .000

Sources:

World Bank (2024)

Credit

As a result of its analysis in March 2022, the Standard & Poor's agency confirmed Spain's A credit rating with a stable outlook. In March 2024, Moody's Investors Service confirmed Spain's credit rating of "Baa1 with a positive outlook".

Agency Moody's Investors Service
Rating Date Activity
Baa1 / positive 3/15/2024 Confirmed Rating
Agency Standard & Poor's
Rating Date Activity
A / Stable 3/15/2022 Confirmed Rating

Sources:

https://tradingeconomics.com/spain/rating

Construction

Year 2022 2023
Price per m2 - Residential 2,900 3,140
Price per m2 - Hotels 3,600 3,718
Price per m2 - Office Buildings 2,830 2,865
Price per m2 - Industrial Buildings 2,200 2,300

Currency: EUR

Sources:

National Statistics Institute of Spain

Tourism

Tourist overnights
2021 32,609,438
Hotels 31,142,013
Resorts 978,283
Camps 489,142
2022 49,461,995
Hotels 47,236,205
Resorts 1,483,860
Camps 741,930
2023 104,350,200
Hotels 99,654,441
Resorts 3,130,506
Camps 1,565,253

Currency: EUR

Sources:

https://www.spain.info/en/

https://www.statista.com/outlook/mmo/travel-tourism/spain#:~:text=Spain's%20Travel%20%26%20Tourism%20market%20is,%2D2028)%20of%203.11%25.

Interest rates - Savings

Period Deposits - 1 year Deposits - over 1 year
Q1-2022 0.33% 1.37%
Q2-2022 0.41% 1.38%
Q3-2022 0.42% 1.37%
Q4-2022 0.42% 1.44%
Q1-2023 0.44% 1.50%
Q2-2023 0.43% 1.48%
Q3-2023 0.45% 1.60%
Q4-2023 0.40% 1.45%

Sources:

Banco de Espana - https://www.bde.es/wbe/en/

Interest rates - Loans

Period Loans - Fixed Interest Rate Loans - Variable Interest Rates
Q1-2021 4.20% 4.10%
Q2-2021 4.20% 4.10%
Q3-2021 4.35% 4.10%
Q4-2021 4.20% 4.30%
Q1-2022 4.44% 4.50%
Q2-2022 4.40% 4.45%
Q3-2022 4.40% 4.45%
Q4-2022 4.70% 4.70%
Q1-2023 4.80% 5.00%
Q2-2023 4.80% 5.10%
Q3-2023 4.90% 5.10%
Q4-2023 4.80% 5.10%

Sources:

Banco de Espana - https://www.bde.es/wbe/en/