Last year, Girona was among the leading provinces in relative real estate activity or, in other words, it was one of the territories where else houses they were sold in proportion to their number of inhabitants.
This is reflected in the latest Statistical Yearbook prepared by the College of Registrars, which confirms the exceptional year experienced by the business of buying and selling real estate in Girona during 2022.
In absolute terms, the registrars counted up to 14,855 housing transactions in Gironawhich amounted to a 19% increase over the previous year. A figure that places Girona as the twelfth province with the most purchase operations. However, the situation changes if the relative activity is analysed, that is to say, if the volume of purchases and sales is taken into account as a function of its population.
In this case, Girona, with 19 sales for every thousand residents, climbs positions in the ranking and practically doubles those of Madrid or Barcelona. The relative activity ranking is led by Alicante (25.99 transactions per 1,000 inhabitants), followed by Málaga (24.12 transactions), Almeria (20.7), Castelló (19.5), Tarragona (19.1) and Girona
This indicator of relative activity is usually used as a way to measure the liquidity of a market, that is to say, the ease of selling a property in a certain area. This is a particularly important parameter in those provinces with a high component of second residences, since it conveys to potential buyers that they will be able to separate themselves from the house or apartment they will acquire, in the event that they need to recover the investment they will make. In other words, that is an added advantage.
Part of the dynamism of Girona’s real estate market is due to international demand and for second homes.
According to data from registrars, Girona’s counties were last year the fifth province where foreigners represented the largest percentage of total buyers, with 28%. Ahead, there are only Alicante (41%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (35%), the Balearic Islands (34%) and Malaga (33%).
Foreigners and non-local buyers bet mainly on acquiring housing in the Costa Brava. This explains another of the statistical dysfunctions that the Registrars detect in Girona: closed sales in the capital of the province only account for 7% of the total, the lowest percentage in all of Spain.
The high percentage of purchases by foreigners and the lack of affordable housing for local residents has led the Balearic government to impose restrictions on foreigners in the real estate market. In the Canary Islands, it is a topic that has also been debated at the gates of the electoral campaign.
The real estate sector insists that it is necessary to take care of foreign buyers because they “generate wealth”, even if it is at the expense of the purchasing possibilities of nationals. The consultants point out that an alternative solution is to recover the tax reliefs for the purchase of housing with mortgage, as they would ease the financial burden.
Sources in the real estate sector deny that limiting the sale of homes to foreigners has an impact on prices. But the experience of these pays even more suspicions, since foreigners tend to buy new and high-priced housing. Many of these foreign buyers bought homes for more than 500,000 euros, when the average price of homes bought in Spain is just over 170,000 euros.
Regarding the prices, the Property Registrars point out that the square meter of operations declared in Girona last year was paid at 2,180 euros, 7.7% more than in the previous year. Girona remains one of the most expensive areas in Spain: only 8 provinces have higher prices. In the city of Girona, the Registrars placed the price per square meter at 2,245 euros, 0.5% more than the previous year.
And what will happen in 2023? The housing market in Spain will exceed 700,000 sales transactions this 2023which means a drop of 2.6% compared to last year, although the price will increase by 4.4%, according to the forecasts of the real estate company Servihabitat made public this week.
The report reveals that production costs will continue to impact the sector and cause a decline in new construction starts of 8.5%.
On the other hand, the supply of rental housing will fall by 26.8%, precisely at a time of increased demand.
In the Girona regions, the president of the Association of Real Estate Agents, Joan Company, points out that in the first months “it is clear that there have been fewer buying and selling operations, but we do not yet detect a large drop in prices as someone was predictingt».
Company attributes the drop in activity to “economic uncertainty” and also to “the increase in interest rates that slows down the demand of those buyers who need financing to deal with real estate investment”.