The percentage of home sales by foreigners in Catalonia recorded a new high in 2022 and has already accumulated seven quarters of growth. This data highlights a Gironawhere last year up to 28.2% of the home buying and selling operations corresponded to foreigners. In Catalonia, in the fourth quarter, 15.6% of purchases were made by foreigners (3,745). A figure that is 13.6% throughout 2022, as reported by the Association of Real Estate Agents (API).
On the other hand, the number of rental contracts registered a slight increase in the last quarter available – the third quarter of 2022 – with 37,992 contracts in Catalonia (-7.2% year-on-year), with Barcelona very prominent with 28,969 of the total The average rental price was 806 euros (highest in the series), at a notable distance from the demarcations of Girona (614 euros)Tarragona (558 euros) and Lleida (467 euros).
In Catalonia, the purchase and sale of homes in Catalonia it grew by 14.7% in 2022 with a total of 102,231 operations. This is the biggest year-on-year increase since 2007. However, in this last quarter there has been a “slight cooling of the global figures”, acknowledged the director of the Real Estate Market Chair, Luis Fabra.
«If we take the year as a whole, 2022 has been fantastic and an excellent year», pointed out Fabra, detailing that the percentage of 85% of sales of used housing and 15% of new housing has remained, and with Barcelona capturing six out of ten real estate transactions in Catalonia (66,537, +15.1% year-on-year). Only the demarcation of Lleida presents negative figures with 1,271 sales of homes during 2022 (5.3% market share and a year-on-year decrease of -7.9%).
With regard to the number of mortgages on housing in Catalonia, it was 81,151 in 2022, with a quarterly decrease of -5.9% but with a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. “We have an active mortgage market, and this is good news”, assured Fabra, despite the fact that he regretted the rise in interest rates and the impact of inflation that was felt at the end of the year.