• Sector. Real estate braking? Housing prices in Barcelona fall for the first time since 2013

Experts have activated the warnings in recent weeks about the housing market: the brick is entering a phase of stagnation and could be worse in the last quarter of the year due to the impact of the economic slowdown inside and outside Spain, instability policy and the lack of regulatory reforms caused by institutional paralysis.

All coincide in diagnosis and symptoms: price increases are moderated and the number of transactions is reduced. The data also reflects both trends, although they differ depending on the source. According to data from the Land Registry compiled by Bankinter , the prices of free housing grew by 8.2% until the first half of the year, slowing slightly from the previous 8.7%. In inter-quarter terms, the increase was 2.6% between April and June, compared to 4.3% in the first quarter.

Based on the Fotocasa Real Estate Index , the values ​​presented slight and moderate increases and decreases in the third quarter. "The price of housing in Spain rises 2.3%, about 42 euros more per square meter", compared to 7.8% in the same period of 2018. If we look at the average price of second-hand housing, prices They even decreased by 1%, compared to the 2.4% increase registered between July and September of the previous year.

"We started the year with very strong increases in the price of housing offered on our portal that have moderated as the year progressed. This trend will intensify in the last quarter as a result of the national and international economic context and political uncertainty. Prices will continue to rise, but less, "explains Beatriz Toribio , director of Fotocasa Studies.

In terms of operations, according to the data analyzed by Bankinter, real estate transactions fell -3.5% in the second quarter of the year. The entry into force of the mortgage law sank the June figures by 9%, although in July they returned to recover with a 5.6% increase in the statistics prepared by the INE. "The data has begun to deteriorate in recent months," they say from the Bankinter Analysis Department, although they rule out that we are at the end of the residential cycle. "Prices enter the stagnation phase (slight growth)", collected from the entity, whose forecasts point to a moderation of 5.5% for 2019 and between 1% and 2% in 2020 and 2021.

"The data in 2019 will continue to be good, although not as much as in 2018», explains Ferran Font , head of Studies at Pisos.com, in conversation with EL MUNDO . Font also believes that prices will moderate their rise as a result of the tension between supply and demand. "It is a trend that began in Barcelona almost a year ago, when it was seen that the price of flats began to stop rising. Madrid continues to rise, but at a slower pace than before and is not necessarily a bad thing, "he says.

Housing has become one of the main concerns of the Spaniards, who still remember how close the previous stage was when the purchase boom ended up exploding in the face of hundreds of thousands of families and individuals.

With these precedents, the increase in the purchase of housing and rents has long stirred the idea of ​​a new real estate bubble and slows the population's access to the market. In this sense, according to the report Young people and their relationship with housing in 2018-2019 of Fotocasa, 21% of them want to buy or rent housing, but cannot; 75% who buy or rent find difficulties because of the high prices and half of those who have rented or tried to rent a property to live in it have done so because their economic situation prevents them from buying.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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