Barcelona launches the data site of property market!

Barcelona is launching a property data site that is useful for anybody on the market.

The Municipal Council of Barcelona has recently launched a web site which provides information on the market of the city, produced by the Municipal Data Office, and which does not provide market metrics anywhere else. To my best knowledge this is the first initiative of this kind in Spain and can even be seen in English (select English, which is Catalan). sale in qatar

The goal of the website is to "give a basic insight into recorded real estate sales and reflect dynamics of the market in terms of operations, prices and locations within the city of Barcelona."

According to the site, the data are "based upon notarized records of the buying and selling of property in Barcelona."

The page 'The latest indicators' gives you an overview of the last quarter of 2020 market and its progress since 2012. It gives you a good market picture.

The data filter is a little clunky, but it allows you to check the number of sales and average prices you have paid in any part of the city, provided that you have sufficient data in your area of interest, that means more than 100 sales. It only works well in high-liquidity areas such as the Eixample.

In the section "Statistics" you can see how sales and prices have progressed over the past four years and also check market figures such as sales volumes and prices in €/mw per district or neighbourhood using the option "cross-variables."

The maps are like hot maps that give you an idea of the location and the price of most transactions.

You can't do something that everyone always wants to do is check the prices of comparable properties, as you can in other countries. This is not possible in Spain due to obstructive data protection legislation, so there can be no charge to the Municipal Data Office for this failure.

The left-wing radicals who are holding the current socialist-led government in power threaten to leave unless the pending housing legislation includes domestic rental controls.

A pledge to introduce a new housing law was key to negotiating a coalition government between the Socialists (PSOE) and the radical Left party Podemos. The draft law has now become one of the main political battlefields between coalition partners in their efforts to tackle the question of rental controls.

Hard left-handed From their luxurious village on the outskirts of Madrid, Podemos led by Pablo Iglesias and his partner Irene Montero have made rent controls one of their main problems. Like Ada Colau, the current Mayor of Barcelona, his fellow left-wing radical, Iglesias calculates that housing is a warm problem which is well suited to the left-wing populism that he has been able to exploit in running for President of the Madrid Region. Housing for most households is the biggest cost, so anyone who promises to reduce this cost by decree is bound to get some support. The new law requires that rent control measures be implemented across the country to enable politicians like him and not the market to decide how much an estate is worth.

For their part, the PSOE is in favor of more regulation, but against rental controls, which they argue decreased investment in housing. More than a dispute over housing policy, however, this is a political battle for the left-wing vote. Although government coalition partners, at the time of the elections both parties are bitter rivals.

Political battle with high stakes

There are high stakes. The Spanish daily El Pais reports that Podemos and the other radicals on which the government relies threaten to remove the bag from the parliamentary majority unless a rental control measure is included in the final draft housing legislation. The Socialists are trying to avoid this because of the damage it would do to the market, but it has been said that they must "find new partners" without the final law on rent controls. Rental controls are a "non-negotiable red line" for Podemos and Co.

Pablo Iglesias made the position of his party clear on this issue. "Before Spain as a whole, the PSOE and the United Podemos committed to regulating rental prices," said Iglesias in El Pais. "It is disrespectful to them not to honor a government commitment signed before citizens. United Podemos won't allow people to go for a ride. What has been signed must be done." To be good, he continued: "In social democracy freedom does not mean freedom to charge for extortionate rents," and "there is no freedom if a family does not have access to decent housing."

The Socialists, for their part, are in favor of more intervention in the rental market, but they know that rental controls will discourage investments in housing and end up curtailing rental supply. "So it is in Berlin," socialist sources told the Spanish press, pointing to the failure of rent checks at German capital, where price caps began a year ago, leading to a predictable decrease in home provision, as Bloomberg and The Economist (after one year Berlin's experiment on rent co-workers) reported

In this political fight, Podemos and all its members, including housing activists, attempt to paint the Socialists as 'speculators' and 'vegetable funds' charging 'abusive income.'

Yesterday they organized protest marches throughout Spain to press the Socialists to "keep the side of the deal" and make it look like bad guys.

Many of the protesters were holding posters portraying José Luis Ábalos, the minister of socialism whose office was preparing the new housing legislation, who said they were on the capitalist property owners' side against the ordinary people, and who demanded rent controls, the end of evictions of all kinds, including squatters and brindering 'vegetable funds.'

PAH protesting housing activists in Barcelona

Spain has a problem with access to housing and affordability in some parts, such as big towns and some islands, and a glut of housing in other areas, such as the interior and parts of the surrounding coast. The problem is complex, but it is essentially supply and demand, as always. Prices rise in areas in which demand is above supply and drop in areas in which the opposite is true.

Visions competing

The moderate left, represented by the Socialist Group in Spain, appears to be understanding the problem and is seeking a policy mix to encourage property owners to contain tax break prices while encouraging investment in housing in order to ensure a sustainable and decent affordable home for all market segments.

The hard left, represented by Podemos, views housing costs as simply a function of greedy landlords and financial institutions that use 'abusive rents' to their people. Supply and demand are not supplied.

Their latest proposal is to limit rents in high demand areas to 2,5% of the rental index irrespective of other characteristics such as features and conditions, without rent increases being possible and not even to match general inflation. Renovations to upgrade properties will not be compensated, but landlords who do not renovate may be punished.

Why is it important?

Most my readers who live in their own homes or holiday homes in Spain are not affected by rental controls, so why does this matter?

It is important because political stability is good for anyone with an interest in property in Spain, and the fight for rent controls reveals that this government is fragile.

And this is because long-term damage to the Spanish housing market is guaranteed if Podemos gets its way. Ada Colau has already shown how much damage can be done to the housing market in Barcelona. Foreign investors have shunned the city and new buildings and investment in response to its policies have collapsed. Why invest in a place where you are likely to lose money and be called a privilege speculator and conspiracy fund?