The coastal cities of Benahavis and Marbella (both in the province of Malaga), Calvia (Balearic Islands) and Sotogrande (Cadiz) occupy the first places in the latest ranking of areas in Spain with the highest prices for buying and renting housing. In the first quarter of 2022, the average price tag for buying a home in these cities exceeded 1 million euros, and rental rates - 2,000 euros per month.
In terms of demand among buyers, Madrid and its suburbs became the leader in the first quarter. According to the popularity of real estate rentals, Victoria and the cities of the metropolitan region of Barcelona have taken the lead.
The following data are presented in a study by Idealista, the leading portal for the sale and rental of real estate in Southern Europe.
Idealista includes areas in the rating that meet a wide range of ads and criteria on the company's website (approx. more than 1,400 criteria for the categories of real estate sales and rentals). Tracking takes place on the basis of quarters during which a detailed study of price changes and consumer demand for objects in a particular region is carried out.
In general, the analysis of real estate sale prices and rental rates requested by homeowners confirms the position of the coastal areas of Spain as the most expensive in the country.
At the same time, the analysis of relative consumer interest demonstrates that buyers are most interested in living in large capitals and their suburbs, as well as neighboring areas.
The beginning of 2022 shows that housing market prices remain generally stable at the national level. There is only a slight decrease of 0.2% at the end of the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. On the other hand, the average rental rate continues to grow around 2% per quarter. Large metropolitan cities show particularly high growth rates.
It is noted that the Spanish economy, as well as Europe as a whole, is experiencing sharp ups and downs due to a combination of several global factors at once, such as rising inflation, a sharp recovery of markets after COVID-19. But in most cases, these factors do not have a direct impact on the development of the national real estate market.
The need to monitor how the events will affect the market in the long term is indicated, however, at the moment, fresh indicators on the demand for areas from buyers, the growth of prices and rental rates remain in the trend of the movement of previous quarters.
Returning to the leaders of the rating. Benahavis, Calvia and Marbella are the three areas with the highest average prices in Spain.
Its high rates are largely due to two factors: the coastal location with access to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the presence of some of the most developed and premium residential areas (approx. Urbanizaciones/Urbanization).
Special attention should be paid to the urbanizations of La Zagaleta, Costa den Blanes, as well as popular «jet set» destinations, such as the Costa del Sol in Marbella (approx. «jet set» - groups of wealthy people who spend their leisure time traveling around the world from one popular and exotic place to another).
Benahavis stands out even against the background of other leaders. The average level of real estate prices in this region exceeds 1.6 million euros. Calvia is at the level of 1.2 million euros, and in Marbella the average cost of real estate is slightly more than 1 million euros.
Noteworthy is the fact that the city of Pozuelo de Alarcon, province of Madrid, dropped out of the list in the current quarter. The district did not meet the minimum requirements for the amount of housing offered on the market for purchase and for rent, therefore it was excluded from the analysis.
The districts already mentioned above are followed by cities such as Sotogrande, Cadiz (861,000 euros), Sitges, Barcelona (677,000 euros) and Javea, Alicante (656,000 euros). It is worth noting the eponymous capital of Ibiza with an average price level of around 620,000 euros.
TOP-10 in which average real estate prices exceeded half a million euros are the following cities:
- Altea in Alicante — 558,750 euros;
- Castelldefels in Barcelona — 555,000 euros;
- Lükmayor in the Balearic Islands — 551,300 euros.
For the first time, Palma appeared in the list of cities where average prices exceeded half a million euros. The city immediately took 11th place with an average property value of 525,500 euros. At the end of the IV quarter of 2021, the city occupied only the 15th place.
