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The COVID-19 pandemic is severely impacting economic activity and the real estate sector is also feeling the effects, albeit not as much as other sectors. Specifically, at CaixaBank Research we expect GDP to fall by between 13% and 15% in 2020 and not to return to pre-crisis levels until the end of 2023. However, despite the seriousness of the situation and the high uncertainty regarding how the pandemic will develop, it is important to note that the sector is supported by a much stronger foundation than in the previous crisis of 2008.

Spain’s housing market ended 2025 with exceptionally high levels of activity, exceeding 714,000 transactions, the highest figure since 2007. The strength of demand – driven by population growth, improved purchasing power and favourable financial conditions – sustained high activity, particularly in the first half of the year. However, on the supply side, significant limitations persist: despite the increase in permits, the construction of new homes remains insufficient to keep up with new household creation. This imbalance between supply and demand is exerting significant upward pressure on prices, which are accelerating across the board, particularly in the most dynamic and touristic areas. Looking ahead to 2026-2027, transactions are expected to stabilise at high levels and there will be a gradual improvement in supply, although it will remain insufficient. As such, prices will continue to rise, albeit at a more moderate rate.

Between 2019 and 2025, Spain's manufacturing industry has grown at a similar rate to overall GDP, despite the impact of the pandemic and the energy crisis. This strong performance stands in contrast to the stagnation and decline seen in the industrial sector in the main European economies, and marks a departure from the trend of the last two decades, when its share of Spain's GDP fell from 16.7% to 10.8%. In this article we examine some of the drivers behind this turnaround in the Spanish industrial sector, most notably energy prices and productivity.

The citrus fruit sector is one of the most important in the Spanish agrifood system and a leading player in international export markets. Its production structure is typically atomised, making it more difficult to modernise the farms, and the sector has some important challenges to tackle. In particular, strong competition from non-EU countries at a time when production costs are rising sharply, accentuated by a prolonged drought and the war in Ukraine. In any case, the figures suggest that Spain’s citrus production continues to be the most competitive in the world, thanks to its hard-won reputation as a product of the highest quality produced under the strictest health standards.

Disruptions in global supply chains, present in markets since the end of 2020 due to the reactivation of demand after the worst phases of the pandemic, and later due to the effects of the war in Ukraine and the persistence of COVID-19 in Asia, affected activity in some manufacturing branches throughout the second half of 2021 and, above all, in 2022. In some sectors, the most intense episodes of difficulties for international trade forced production to be cut back on an ad hoc basis, or even to come to a halt. Logically, those industries most dependent on imports of raw materials and/or intermediate goods for their production processes, as well as those with greater complexity in their value chains, suffered the most.

This winter’s drought has highlighted one of the most important challenges facing Spain’s agrifood sector: improving how water resources are used given the prospect of their availability becoming more limited.

Spain has experienced a sustained increase in business entrepreneurship in recent years, reaching its highest level since 2012. However, business creation remains below the European average and significant structural challenges persist: a high early failure rate among new businesses, a strong geographical concentration of entrepreneurship and a limited focus on high value-added sectors. Despite these weaknesses, encouraging signs are emerging in sectors linked to digitalisation and the Economy 4.0. The major challenge lies in harnessing this dynamism to ensure that more projects survive, consolidate, and are directed towards higher-productivity sectors, so that all this can translate into more solid, balanced, and lasting economic growth.