Barcelona Real Estate Market Report Q1-Q2 2011 by Lucas Fox International Properties http://www.lucasfox.com/

1. BARCELONA REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT
Q1 & Q2, 2011 RELEASED AUGUST 2011
This Barcelona real estate market report has been developed by Lucas Fox International Properties to provide investors, property
owners, renters and businesses with the latest information available to guide Barcelona property decisions. Luxury properties in Bar-
celona continue to be the best performing segment of the overall Barcelona real estate market, as buyers seek quality and exclusive
properties that will retain their value over the years ahead, while providing a quality base for living part or full time or operating a
business in the most cosmopolitan of world cities. If you are serious about owning property in Spain, the current market presents a
good opportunity to secure bargain prices for quality Barcelona real estate.
You can keep receiving up-to-date market reports from the Lucas Fox International Properties team. Subscribe to future updates at our website
(www.lucasfox.com) or bookmark our blog (www.blog.lucasfox.com) for the latest news on Barcelona real estate. For any questions about Barce-
lona real estate, please contact one of our sales staff on +34 933 562 989.
“
The Barcelona Real Estate Market The relative lack of Figure 2: Average Asking Prices for House Sales
(in ’000s): Spain and Barcelona July 2010 - June 2011
Nationally, the Spanish housing sector and property
market has continued its downward trend, although
supply and high level
not as steeply as was the case in other housing mar- of demand for quality luxury
kets such as the US. Despite this, the luxury property
market in Barcelona and in other key Spanish loca- apartments and houses
tions (see our Market Reports for other areas) has dis-
played some resilience. This reflects a global trend in will mean that prices in this
both luxury property sales and more broadly in the
segment of the market will
”
luxury consumer market.
In Barcelona, after a small start-of-year drop in maxi- remain stable
mum euro prices per m2, housing prices at the exclu-
sive end of the market remained stable. For the av-
erage price properties in Barcelona and Spain, there Alex Vaughan, Director At Lucas Fox, the first half of 2011 has seen a high
was a continuing dip in housing prices ( Figure 1)i. level of demand for luxury Barcelona real estate, in
However, in Barcelona average asking prices for Lucas Fox Barcelona
house sales were on average much higher than in particular for apartments in Barcelona city centre
Figure 1: Average and Maximum Euro Price (in ’000s)
per m2: Spain and Barcelona July 2010 - June 2011 Spain overall. For the first half of 2011 average sales suitable for tourist rentals and villas in the city and
were 166.6% higher than the Spanish property av- on the coast. This is in contrast to the situation with
erage (€ 236,000) (Figure 2)ii & iii . property sales of average properties, which saw a
lackluster second quarter (Figure 3).
The small month-to-month drop in average prices
has led some property analysts to suggest that the ”The slowdown in Barcelona property sales at the
market is bottoming out, while more bullish analysts lower end of the market is partly due to the introduc-
have been suggesting that the environment is ideal tion of new mortgage taxation laws but also due to
for strategically picking up property the lack of finance available to local buyers,” says Alex
investments at low prices. Other analysts have noted Vaughan, Director, Lucas Fox Barcelona.
that with Spanish banks still holding onto large
amounts of property assets and an uncertain eco-
nomic environment, some further price adjustment
downwards is to be expected.

2. “
Barcelona Property Prices During Q1/Q2 2011 we
The first half of 2011 showed a drop in average Euro Figure 5: Barcelona property price quarterly
price per m2 for Barcelona real estate to €3,752 per m2. variation between Q1 and Q2 2011 have enjoyed a 96% in-
Maximum property prices remained steady at €4,888
per m2 for the full half year. New housing construction crease in web site visitors over Q3/
remained subdued. Q4 2010. Most interestingly we have
Q1 2011 4,2%
recorded a rise of 300% with Russian
Salesiv: Sales prices for all of Barcelona averaged at
€3,907 per m2, a fall of 3,4% on sales figures from
4,7% 4,6% clients in the two last quarters. As an
the end of 2010 when prices averaged €4,046 per m2 agency, we have seen a 230% rise
(Figure 1). Maximum prices were recorded in Sarria- 3,3%
Sant Gervasi (€6,035 per m2) and Les Corts (€5,657 per 3,1%
in qualified enquiries from Russian
m2), with the most exclusive properties in Eixample property investors and buyers. With
reaching €5,293 per m2.
a high level of enquiries and interest
Figure 3: Barcelona and Spain Urban Property Sales
7,1%
Transactions January - May 2011
2,2%
from other emerging markets and
our traditional client base the first
half of 2011 has been anything but
”
Foreign Investment
bleak.
2011 has seen increased interest in Barcelona and Ca-
taluña property from non Eurozone property inves-
tors. Demand from Russian and former Soviet buyers Anthony Leaton,
has been strong – figures show that the large number
of Russian households with a high level of cash assets Marketing Director
and a small amount of borrowings has resulted in a
30% increase in demand for purchasing overseas pro-
perties. Buyers have shown a particularly interest in
Figure 6: Lucas Fox Top 11 website visitors
second homes and commercial properties in Barcelo-
Figure 4: Cataluña and Spain Housing Constructions by country for January - June 2011
naviii. Russian property investment is set to be replica-
Commenced January 2011 - April 2011
ted by affluent consumers in other emerging markets,
including Mexico, China and Brazilix.
Within Europe, Lucas Fox have noted growing interest
in Barcelona property amongst Swiss and Nether-
lands residents (Figure 6 & 7). This interest in the lo-
cal property market has been matched by increases
in tourist numbers from these same countries in the
first half of 2011.
Constructionv : Construction of new properties in Ca-
taluña, including Barcelona, remained low for the first Figure 7: 2011 international drivers of current Barcelona foreign property investment trends
three months of 2011(Figure 4).
Q2 2011
Salesvi: The year’s downward trend continued in the
second quarter of 2011, with average sales prices hit-
ting €3.752 per m2 by the end of June. There was a
European market:
4% variation drop in average prices overall (Figure 5) Netherlands and
maintained the first quarter levels. Switzerland show
interest
Constructionvii: Construction figures for new Barcelo-
na properties forms part of the overall Cataluña sum- UK market Russian market:
80% of UK residents 1 million+ households
mary results. These are expected to be released by the want to buy Spanish with $425K cash assets
Idescat on 29 September, 2011. property for their
retirement

3. Barcelona Rental Property Lucas Fox Analysis and Prediction
Average rental prices (Figure 8) for Barcelona properties
for the Second Half of 2011
“
dropped slightly (-0.2% variation) between the first and
second quarters of 2011, from €12.1 per m2 to €11.7 per
m2x. W hile the fir st half of
Q1 2011 xi 2011 has se e n fur the r
Ciutat Vella (€13.5/m2) had the highest rental prices,
with Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (€12.4/m2) and Les Corts (€11.9/
drops on ke y housing indica-
m2) also high. tors i n Barce lona, the lux ur y
en d of the mar ke t has he ld Sitges – Villa
Q2 2011 xii
Spain» Barcelona
The second quarter of 2011 saw Ciutat Vella drop slightly steady in sale s pr ice s and se e n
(€13.1/m2) as did Sant Gervasi (€12.3/m2) while Les Corts
increased slightly (€12.0/m2) on average prices from the som e i ncre ase s in re nt al pr ice
first quarter.
f or exc lusive prop e r tie s lo ca- €2,100,000
Figure 8: Monthly Average and Maximum Rental Pri-
ces (€ per m2) for Barcelona July 2010 - June 2011
ted i n the ce ntre of Barce lona.
Th e rel ative lack of supply
an d h i gh le ve l of de mand for
qual i t y lux ur y apar tme nt s and
h ouses w ill me an t hat pr ice s
i n th i s se gme nt of the mar ke t
wi l l remain stable. We pre dic t Old Town – Apartment
Spain » Barcelona
th at f o r t he imme diate fut ure
buyers w ill b e able to se cure
Barcel o na prop e r t ie s at comp e - €1,300,000
Barcelona Short-term Rental Market
Barcelona airport saw an increase of 20.6% in passenger ti ti ve p r ice s. Give n t he cur re nt
arrivals for the first half of 2011, one of the highest in-
creases recorded amongst the major European airports, econ omic condit ions and lack
with over 15 million passengers arriving at El Prat airport of f i n ance available to lo cal
in the first half of the year (Figure 9)xiii. Between Februa-
ry and April 2011, Barcelona was the 7th most searched buyers, inte r nat ional clie nt s
travel destination amongst UK internet users.
sh oul d b e w illing to hold on to
Tourism growth in Barcelona’s province, Cataluña, has th ei r prop e r tie s for longe r as it
been consistently strong all year. Tourism data is cur-
wi l l b e se ve ral ye ar s b e fore the
”
rently only available for the first quarter of 2011, which
Alex Vaughan Stijn Teeuwen
showed an increase of 2.5% in foreign visitors on 2010 n ex t grow th c ycle . Director Director
figures. Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland visitor
numbers grew substantially.
Tourism levels impact on the short-term rental market,
as tourists seek accommodation while visiting Barce-
- Pred ic t s Luc as Fox ,
lona. Tourism drives the need for short-term rental pro- Direc tor, Alex Vaughan.
perties for visitor accommodation.
Figure 9: Barcelona Inflight Arrivals July 2011
_____________________________ Anthony Leaton
i
Idealista Evolution of monthly sales prices 2010 & 2011
ii
Kyero Housing Price Index
Marketing Director
iii
NIE Statistics on property transfer rights, monthly provisional data
iv
Idealista Evolution of monthly sales prices 2010 & 2011
v
http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=0201&lang=en
vi
Idealista Evolution of monthly sales prices 2010 & 2011
vii
http://www.fomento.gob.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/
vii
ESTADISTICAS_Y_PUBLICACIONES/INFORMACION_ESTADISTICA/Calen-
dario.htm
viii
http://blog.lucasfox.com/commercial-property-2/spain-retail-european-
property-market/
ix
Boyd, M. (2011) Barcelona Luxury and the Affluent Travel Consumer:
Audience Profile Market Research Report, mgboyd.com. August 2011.
x
http://www.idealista.com/descarga.jsp?archivo=anio_alquiler_2010.
pdf&origen=C03
xi
Idealista Evolution of monthly rental prices 2011
xii
Idealista Evolution of monthly rental prices 2011
http://www.aena-aeropuertos.es/csee/ccurl/899/599/07.Estadisticas_Ju-
nio_2011.pdf
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/registration-pages/quarterly-travel-review
xiii
http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=5428&lang=en