Buying a home remains a hurdle for many people, especially as prices keep climbing sharply in recent months. In some regions, the pace of growth in new homes has not been seen since the housing bubble burst in 2007. This is the situation intensifying in the Valencian Community, one of the areas nationwide where home purchases are becoming increasingly expensive, according to the latest data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The figures show that the price of housing at the end of the second quarter was 8.6 percent higher in the autonomy than at the end of June 2023.
Among the sharpest increases
The rise stands eight tenths above the national average and ranks among the highest values after Navarre (10.3%), Aragon (9.9%), and the regions of Andalusia and Ceuta (9.5%), with Cantabria and La Rioja sharing the Valencian Community’s 8.6% increase.
When the data are broken down by housing type, the concern grows. INE figures show that new homes are the main driver of higher prices, with purchases of these homes carrying an extra 11.6% compared with the same period last year. That is four tenths higher than the national average, where price increases are the most pronounced since the third quarter of 2007, during the mortgage crisis. In contrast, used housing shows a more moderate rise of 8.1%, though this is eight percentage points above the national trend for this category.
More expensive than in March
With the second-quarter uptick in 2024, there are now 41 consecutive quarters of year-on-year price increases for free-market housing. Additionally, comparing to the end of the first quarter of the year, property prices in the Valencian Community have risen by 4.3%, versus 3.6% on average across Spain. In other words, the pace of price growth in Valencia is moving faster than the national average. [Source: INE]