Only ten cities left in Spain where one metre squared costs less than 1000 euros
House and flat prices are nearing their peak, however this peak is very high. There are only a few cities left where you can find a house or flat for less than 1000 euros per square metre and this is only in a few neighbourhoods. According to a report by House valuers (Tecnitasa) these cities are Cuenca, Murcia, Jaén, Melilla, Alicante, Badajoz, Las Palmas, Lugo, Zamora and Jerez de la Frontera.

The report covered 61 Spanish cities in total.

However, the cheapest cities influence the figures significantly. In the area called La Paz, in Murcia, prices have risen from 650 to 830 euros per square metre in one year. In the cheapest areas in Jaen, prices have risen from 670 to 850 euros per square metre. Both rises are above 25% in just one year.

On the other hand the highest prices have remained static. In the Paseo de Gràcia in Barcelona a square metre costs 11,000 euros and 10,000 euros in la calle Serrano, in Madrid.

There are 10 cities where the price per square metre has risen above 6000 euros. Apart from Madrid and Barcelona. These cities are San Sebastian, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Marbella, Santander, Oviedo, Sevilla and Gerona amongst others.

However Estate agents have confirmed that the drop in property prices is becoming more and more generalized following the boom during the last few years.

In fact two reports published yesterday state that property prices dropped in the first trimester of the year. Second hand houses and flats rose less than 1% in Madrid and Barcelona and prices dropped in many areas of both cities. One report by Expocasa goes a step further and states that property prices dropped during the first trimester in 66 of the 91 cities and towns with more than 25,000 inhabitants.

The cities which have experienced significant drops in prices are Coruña (a 6.8% drop), Valladolid (4.5%) and Cáceres (3.7%), according to Expocasa, while Idealista highlighted a drop in prices in San Fernando de Henares (3.5%) and Esplugues de Llobregat (5.2%).

María Antonia Trujillo, the Minister for Housing yesterday said that the housing sector is stabilizing and going back to figures that were normal 16 years ago.

Speaking at a conference organized by one of Spain’s largest unions, UGT, in Cáceres, she said that the government’s objective was for the annual rise in house and flat prices to match the rate of inflation.