We present the 2022 Market Report to the press

On March 29, we presented the 10th Market Report of 2022 to the press.

On March 29, our General Director, Guifré Homedes, presented to the press the 10th Amat Immobiliaris Market Report for 2022, which this year celebrates the 75th anniversary of its foundation, and which includes and summarizes our data from last year and how we saw the real estate market.

About ten people attended the presentation we made at our Luxury Boutique where we talked about the lack of offer available and its low energy rating, especially in the rental market, the increase in foreign tenants who need long-term rentals, as well as the good year in second-hand sales and the stop in new constructions by developers due to the increase in construction costs and the war outbreak. You can see the news that La Vanguardia and Diari ARA have made about our Market Report.

Rental market

After several years of growth, 2022 has meant a change in trend for us, where we have carried out 9% fewer new contracts.

We started in 2022 at a rate similar to that of other years, as the year has progressed, the supply has been decreasing, while the demand has been and continues to be high, and we do not have the supply to satisfy it. During the first quarter of the year we were still in a regulated income market, but the fall in regulation coincided, on the one hand, with the very significant increase in the cost of supplies and, on the other, with the 2% limitation on rent increases by CPI in the current contracts, imposed by the State Government. Two relevant facts in the rental market.

The tenant profile is between 30 and 50 years old, and they will pay between €1,001-1,500 each month. 36% are looking for 65-95 m²homes with 3 bedrooms. The vast majority of these have an energy rating of E or lower.  The Next Generation Funds for the energy rehabilitation of buildings have been active for a year, and we can say that, currently, we are failing as a sector and as a society. Its level of application has been minimal.

Homedes highlights “with the energy-poor rental park that we have, together with the framework of legal instability around rentals, it discourages owners from investing in renovating homes with the worst energy rating” and ensures that “without investment in the rental estate, the tenant families will have higher supplies costs and worse comfort than those families that live in property”.

It is worth noting the increase of long-term foreign tenants, especially in Barcelona city, ​​where before COVID-19 they represented a 15% and now between 40-45%.

The big problem in the rental market is that the offer has been going down for many months now. If we were to summarize really quickly why are we in this situation, the conclusion would be that the media, the political machinery and the constant changes in the legal framework, 12 in 4 years, declare the owner-lessors, mostly small, as speculators, and devolves in them the Administration social responsibilities. This situation is pushing these owner-lessors to:

• Stop investing and, therefore, stop generating new supply.
• Sell the properties they have for rent, which obviously is not bought by another investor, but by someone to live in, and as a result we subtract offer.
• Assign the properties to other rental modalities. We continue to reduce offer.

This is how they explained it in the news that did the ViaEmpresa y El Periodico.

Sales market

As for second-hand sales, it has been a good year in which activity has grown by 21% compared to 2021 and where it has been distributed among all price ranges, the average price is, as was the case in 2021, around €500,000. The average sales time has been 3 and a half months.

71% of the homes we have sold are less than 120 m² and 63% have between 2 and 3 rooms, the average age of the buyer remains above 40 years. Most resale properties are also challenged to energetic upgrades, as more than 73% of properties sold are rated E or worse.

Regarding new construction, it was a very good start to the year, but the construction costs increase and the war outbreak, caused many projects to be frozen for months or completely stopped until autumn, leaving sales to a minimum. These two factors have also affected the percentage of investors, both, in the sale of new and second-hand construction. At the end of 2022, the perception of the potential buyer is different from that of the beginning of the year and the sales rates have been at a much lower level, between 1–2 properties sold per month.

Buyers under 40 years old continue to have an important importance. The new construction is clearly the first access to a property.  The best-selling homes are 90-120 m² and have 3 rooms with energy levels between A and B.

Luxury Market

The high-end standing market, like the standard second-hand sales market, has had remarkable activity in 2022, where finished houses and plots to build Single-family homes have been the operations that we have done the most in the last year. The areas of Sant Just Desvern, Ciudad Diagonal in Esplugues de Llobregat and Sant Cugat del Vallès have maintained the interest of high-level local buyers looking to improve their surroundings or leave the city of Barcelona. The single-family houses of more than 300 m², most of them partially or completely reformed when entering the house, are the most sold type of houses in these locations.

If you want to see the full market report, you can do it here.