Search results

En el ciclo expansivo actual del mercado inmobiliario español, se observa un fuerte incremento de la dispersión de los precios de la vivienda a lo largo de la geografía española, a diferencia del boom inmobiliario anterior a 2008. Desde 2015, los municipios turísticos y las grandes ciudades lideran el crecimiento de los precios. En cambio, en zonas rurales o en ciudades pequeñas, se observan aumentos de precio más moderados. Este comportamiento refuerza la visión de que, en este ciclo, la formación de precios responde a las dinámicas propias de oferta y demanda de cada territorio. En las grandes ciudades, las fuertes presiones de precio en los centros se van extendiendo a cada vez más municipios de las áreas metropolitanas.

The key to the sustained increase in international tourist arrivals is the high sensitivity of demand to income growth in the source countries and a relatively moderate increase in domestic prices relative to the bigger increases occurring in competing destinations.

Between 2020 and 2022, around 420,000 new households were created in Spain. During the same period, the number of new homes started barely reached 300,000, the lowest level since 1990 except during the financial crisis that began in 2008. This supply of housing, which is insufficient in relation to the demographic situation, is more pronounced in those municipalities whose populations are growing the most, such as large cities, the islands and the Mediterranean coastline. According to population projections by the National Statistics Institute, about 217,000 new households will be created per year over the next five years (2023-2027), representing significant demographic pressure and with important implications for the housing market.

The automotive industry is an important driver of growth and prosperity worldwide due to its contribution (i) in social terms, by facilitating people’s mobility in an efficient, safe and affordable way, and (ii) in economic terms, as a driver of innovation, a generator of good quality jobs and a pillar of international trade. In the case of Spain, it has become a mainstay of our industry and a benchmark on a global scale, thanks to a large production capacity and high productivity resulting from a skilled workforce and a great degree of plant automation. The economic crisis caused by the pandemic has taken its toll on a sector that is in the midst of a technological transformation towards electrification. A necessary transition that will be strongly supported by the Next Generation EU (NGEU) funds.

Population growth has been one of the main factors that has driven the demand for housing in Spain in recent quarters and has played a fundamental role in sustaining home prices in a context of tightening financing conditions. In this article, we analyse the relationship between population growth and the evolution of home prices in the last two years. Population flows have been concentrated in large urban areas and tourist areas, and have caused a wide dispersion in the growth of home prices between the most buoyant areas of the country and those suffering depopulation.

The spread of the coronavirus throughout the world has come as an unprecedented shock to the global economy. The Spanish economy has been particularly hard hit, partly because of its greater dependence on international tourism. In the second half of the year, we expect the economic recovery to take hold thanks to the easing of social distancing measures and the boost provided by the wide range of fiscal and monetary measures adopted. However, we believe the economy will continue to operate below potential over the next few years.

In 2023, Spain’s tourism sector remained on the path of recovery and growth, surpassing initial expectations and breaking records, not only in nominal expenditure but also in real terms. In 2024, we expect the positive trend for Spain’s tourism sector to continue and its GDP to increase by 2.5%, with the sector outpacing the overall economy and remaining one of the drivers of the Spanish economy.

Tourism ended this year’s summer season in great shape with international tourist arrivals coming very close to the records set in 2019, a year that was extremely positive for the industry. Domestic tourism has also continued to post very good figures. However, the macroeconomic scenario represents a risk for the trend in tourism activity over the coming quarters due to high inflation and the economic slowdown in Europe. Nevertheless, we believe that tourism demand still enjoys significant levers for growth in the coming year and we therefore expect the sector to complete its recovery in 2023.

The Spanish agrifood sector has begun to recover after two years of decline, thanks to the moderation of production costs and the easing of the drought. However, the effects of both of these shocks still persist and the sector continues to face major challenges that are limiting its structural growth capacity.

Air passenger transport is one of the mainstays of the tourism sector's value chain. For this reason, and in a similar way to the rest of the sector, it experienced a huge slump in 2020 in the wake of COVID-19. Airlines are currently having to tackle a combination of high capital costs due to their large structures and an almost total lack of operating income. The evident need for liquidity among Europe's airlines has led some governments to inject public capital to prevent their collapse. However, 2021 looks like being the watershed the tourism sector needs: the progress made by the vaccination roll-outs and the approval of measures such as the health passport will be crucial for air passenger transport to embark on the road to recovery and return to being one of the mainstays of tourism.

Foreign purchases in Spain have made a surprisingly strong recovery after the pandemic-induced restrictions were lifted. Indicators related to purchase intent suggest that this positive trend will continue in the short term, especially among the German and Nordic populations. The long-term outlook for foreign demand is also promising considering the demographic trends in Europe: the imminent retirement of a large generation of Europeans points to a significant increase in potential demand, especially between 2026 and 2030. Although Spain has considerable strong points to attract this demand, such as the high competitiveness of its tourism industry and the country’s perceived safety, the importance of creating an attractive regulatory and fiscal environment, whilst also adopting appropriate housing policies to mitigate its impact on the local population, should not be underestimated.

The real estate market is one of the main channels through which monetary policy is passed on to the real economy. Tighter financial conditions are feeding through to mortgage interest rates and are cooling down the demand for housing. Given the notable tightening of monetary policy over the past year in many of the advanced economies, in this article we document the change in trend in international real estate markets and analyse the extent of the adjustment that may lie ahead.

Según estimaciones de CaixaBank Research, España ha acumulado un déficit de vivienda, que ya supera las 730.000 unidades, como consecuencia de una intensa creación de hogares y de una respuesta insuficiente en la construcción de obra nueva. En este artículo, revisamos la magnitud de ese desajuste y su impacto en la evolución reciente de los precios de la vivienda, que muestran una tensión creciente en buena parte del territorio. Observamos también que la promoción de obra nueva no avanza, precisamente, en las regiones donde el desfase entre oferta y demanda es más acusado, lo que agrava los desequilibrios y prolongará las presiones sobre los precios. Finalmente, examinamos los factores que están limitando la reactivación de la oferta (desde el aumento de los costes de construcción hasta las restricciones normativas y la falta de suelo finalista, pasando por los problemas de infraestructuras) y anticipamos una escasa mejora a corto plazo de la capacidad del sector para atender las necesidades actuales de vivienda.