In the last five years, new housing prices have increased by 80% in Valencia, while the supply has been reduced by 83%. In the same period, rental prices have risen by 78%. This has been the evolution between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the analysis of the data obtained by the Housing Observatory Chair of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).
Fernando Cos-Gayón, director of the Housing Observatory Chair of the UPV, analyses these figures: 'As was foreseeable given the extreme supply shortage, the rate of price rises is accelerating, especially in rents. In the city of Valencia, the average price has risen from 15.94 €/m² to 17.25 €/m² in the last quarter, which represents an increase of 8.17% in just three months. What was a worrying situation five years ago is now one of extreme housing emergency, with a very high risk that the housing problem will mutate into a social and coexistence emergency’.
The Director of the Housing Observatory Chair affirms that, according to INE forecasts for the period 2024-2039, if current demographic trends continue, the number of households in Spain will grow by almost 3.7 million, which means that 246,667 homes will need to be built per year over the next 15 years.
'What we have before us is a tsunami of epic proportions, and all administrations must act in a coordinated, effective and swift manner so that the situation does not deteriorate further. We estimate that more than 80% of the current demand is for Public Housing (VPP), so it is strategic to make a firm commitment to constructing this type of housing’.
Cos-Gayón stresses that the situation of high construction prices, low labour force and lack of specialisation, shortage of land in cities with high demand for housing, and the slowness in the administrative management of licenses of all kinds do not help to alleviate the problem: ‘Therefore, we must act urgently, and hand in hand with private companies, with a smooth public-private relationship, because the challenge we face is not viable to assume it only from the public coffers and without the experience of the real estate sector’.
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