Although the market is experiencing a slowdown, the real estate market offers an optimal growth for investors; around 8%.
Rental prices in Barcelona continue to rise, and they are already at the same level than before the housing bubble explodes. However, have a certain deceleration is expected in this trend for this year 2017.
An example can be found in the rental apartments of the luxury level, which increased their prices by 17% last year 2016. Thus, the slowdown is expected to reach a median increase of 8%.
This price deceleration of the luxury apartments is explained by the increase of the offer; many investors have acquired properties during the hardest years of the housing crisis for the attractive prices but after rehabilitating those properties, they have seen how the profitability received selling them is not what they expected. In this way, there is a large part of that offer that has decided to reorient that investment by offering these flats for rent.
Another factor to keep in mind is that during this year the three-year contracts that were born in 2013 as a result of the urban leasing law are finishing. This fact will condition the market, as owners will demand higher rental prices and that will lead an increase of turnover, an increase of supplies, and a moderation in price increases.
Regarding demand, it is important to highlight the boom that the market is experiencing in the last years. This excessive increase in demand is basically explained by the attractiveness of the city of Barcelona as a tourist destination, where the investment is made much more profitable, and by the professional and academic level; many foreigners have a much greater purchasing power than the citizens of the Catalan capital, and if they decide to settle in Barcelona for a period of time or indefinitely, they have predisposition to pay a rent much higher than Barcelona citizens.
If we talk about sales of high-level properties, there are neighbourhoods where prices are already close to the situation prior to the crisis. Examples of this market recovery value can be Les Corts, l'Eixample or El Gòtic, where 80% or 90% of 2007 prices are already reached; their historical maximum.
Finally, to make a small analysis of the investors, we can see that the domestic market grows in front of the international, which still stands at 40%, but mostly in the luxury sector.