The province of Alicante has long been a real force in home sales, and this became clear once again in the second quarter of the year. Thanks to 12,622 official operations, it retained the third place in the ranking after Madrid and Barcelona.. However, this strength stems from strong foreign demand as 45% of buyers are foreigners; this brings the Alicante region to the fore in this field at the national level. Although the market is starting to show signs of exhaustion, sales are up 16% from a year agoConsidering that there was already a 2.8% decrease between April and June. On the other hand, prices continue to rise for newly built residences, which are €100 more per square meter this quarter than in the previous quarter, due to a lack of stocks created by high demand.
If the rental market is low in Alicante, the opposite is true for home sales, which continue to be strongly influenced by the real estate sector. The latest data released by the Spanish Association of Real Estate and Business Registrars places the province in third place nationally, thanks to 12,622 operations in the second quarter. Of the total, 1,799 were new and 10,863 were used houses.. Madrid with a total of 18,895 houses sold (4,544 new and 14,351 used) and Barcelona with 15,628 houses (2,733 new and 12,895 used) seem to be leading.
The state of Valencia, which is far behind and far behind in operations, ranks fourth with a total of 9,829 homes (1,443 new and 8,386 second-hand). Castellón is in nineteenth place with 2,663 operations (416 new and 2,247 used). At the bottom of the ranking is Palencia with a total of 408 properties (64 new and 344 used); Teruel, 345 (50 and 295, respectively); and Soria, with 286 (87 and 199).
The reason why the province of Alicante has this privileged position in the real estate sector is that foreign demand is so high; 44.67% of the operations carried out in the second quarter consisted of foreign buyers.
In fact, the Alicante region is the region most in demand by customers from other countries. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is in second place with 38.01% of sales, followed by Malaga with 32.02% and all regions have high tourist potential and a privileged climate.
Total sales in the province increased by 16.1 percent compared to the previous year (15.2 percent in new houses, 16.2 percent in second-hand houses). However, since there was a decrease of 2.8 percent compared to the first quarter, a slowdown is beginning to be perceived in the market; in any case below the 5.6 percent decline at the national level. The increase in interest rates and therefore housing loans is effective in this..
But Jesualdo Ros, general secretary of the Alicante State Property Developers Association, downplayed this fall, which he described as normal. In his words, “We have come to such a point in two magnificent years that there is no technical stock due to excess demand.. So it’s normal, even positive, for the market to change its direction because it didn’t make sense for it to continue like this.
Ros is also aware of the enormous weight of foreign buyers. Belgian, Dutch and Germanfirst of all in new construction and the British mostly in used housing. Attention is also drawn to customers in other neighboring countries such as Ukraine and Poland, which monopolize a significant portion of demand. “It emphasizes that the conflict of war forced them out of there.”
Lack of stocks that Jesualdo Ros talks about is driving prices up for new homesIts price was 6.1 percent higher than the previous quarter and was 2,181 euros, while the price of the used one was 1,541, up 1.5 percent. The sum of both gives an increase of 1.6% and averages 1,623 euros. Alicante is the fourteenth province of Spain where prices are more expensive. Guipúzcoa ranks first with an average of 3,423 euros per square metre, followed by Madrid with 3,299 euros; Balearic Islands with 3,214; and Barcelona with 2,842. Jaén with the 740 in the rear; Basin, with 691; and Ciudad Real with 645.
Project owners are demanding regulatory changes to unblock subsidized housing (VPO) construction in the Community of Valencia. The industry claims that they are in a position to put the properties on the market for 150,000 euros with the best financing conditions, but points out that this requires fine-tuning of both the VPO regulations and the livability decree.
Jesualdo Ros, secretary general of Provia, points out that “the lack of affordable housing incentives has led to a housing ownership problem that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.”
Emphasizing that the sector can therefore offer housing for approximately 150 thousand euros, approximately 70 square meters, with good quality standards and predominantly for young people, he warns “but as long as they let us”.
In this sense, the developers are calling for a series of changes to the VPO regulations approved last May to make it easier for average incomes to access properties and also to amend the livability decree on design standards. “There is no point in needing rooms with dimensions that are not suitable for the demands of the society, demanding batteries to do laundry instead of putting a washing machine. We just want common sense to be restored.
Thus, the sector becomes ready for the use of the new regional administration to solve all these problems.