Janusz

The new figures were not a happy Christmas present for the thousands of people who work in the construction business in Spain. They relate to the period June to September of the year gone by, and show that the rate of new construction dropped by 35.5 per cent. This confirms a tendency observed throughout the previous year, with demand for new housing falling in line with increasing unemployment in the sector.
The figure of 45,661 new houses approved by the Official College of Architects in 2006 dropped to 29,432 last year. The sharpest fall has been seen on the western Costa del Sol, however, where the number of new houses approved by the College of Architects dropped by 52 per cent last year. The same figure for Malaga City in the same period was only13 per cent, with 6,329 new houses approved for construction in the past twelve months.

The increase in house prices, as expected, was a direct reflection of the overall crisis in the industry, the average rise of 4.3 per cent being only half of the corresponding figure for the previous year.

On the western coastline, the municipalities most affected by the crisis were Torremolinos (74 per cent fewer than in the previous year), Estepona (73 per cent fewer) and Manilva, where the figure for the previous year – 1,425 new houses built in the municipality in 2006– dropped to only 208 last year, amounting to a decrease of 85 per cent. Marbella was also badly affected, where houses approved by the Official College of Architects dropped by 34 per cent last year. House prices in these areas, however, maintained their levels, with an average 12 per cent rise on the western Costa del Sol, we can see from data supplied by the Salvago property agency. The rise in Marbella was 8.8 per cent for the year, where property can now cost up to 3,098 euros per square metres built.

Especially significant is the case of Benalmádena, where the price of housing has increased by 27 per cent, from 2,371 euros at the end of 2006 to 3,018 euros last year. This is the western coastal municipality with the smallest decrease in authorizations by the College of Architects, the figure being 16 per cent. Contrasting with this are the figures for Mijas and Fuengirola, where the College of Architects approved 31 and 44 per cent fewer houses respectively, in the course of last year.

Eastern coastline

The decrease along the eastern Costa del Sol has varied considerably from area to area, the average figure being 27 per cent. The biggest drop was in Vélez-Málaga (44 per cent) and Nerja (30 per cent), while in Rincón de la Victoria and Torrox, there were only four per cent fewer houses approved in the same period, which was well behind the provincial average.

House prices on the eastern Costa del Sol fell by 6.4 per cent in 2007, although the figure for Rincón de la Victoria was 13 per cent, and they actually rose in Vélez-Málaga by nine per cent, now standing at 2,430 euros per square metre built. This explains the increase in new residents in the municipality.

As far as the interior of the province is concerned, the most outstanding cases are those of álora and Ronda, which are the only two Malaga areas where the building rate did not decline. In the case of álora, it actually increased by 34 per cent, with 463 house designs approved. The decrease in the College of Architects statistics is significant, nevertheless, in areas north and north-west of Malaga City, such as Cártama, AlhaurÃ*n de la Torre and AlhaurÃ*n El Grande, areas which have previously been characterised by a lively property market. In these last two areas, house prices have dropped with respect to the figures for 2006, as shown in the Salvago report. According to this property company, Cártama has shown the highest rises in prices per square metre built: 53 per cent, at 3,327 euros per square metres built.

The price of council housing maintains its scant share of the overall market, at a mere 6.3 per cent.

Sur in English / 11th January 2007