The governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, has highlighted that the annual reports for 2024 and 2025 confirm the existence of extraordinary excess demand in the housing market, which ‘will probably increase in the coming years’.
He therefore advocated implementing measures based on collaboration between all administrations, at local, regional and national level, aimed at incentivising and expanding the housing supply.
‘This is an issue that affects all three levels of public administration,’ said Escrivá in response to questions from the media about the problem of access to housing at the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) in Santander, before participating in the course “Immigration and Industrial Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for Spain”.
The latest report from the Bank of Spain puts the housing deficit at between 400,000 and 450,000 units in the period 2022 to 2024, slightly reducing the previous deficit of 600,000 units in 2023. This imbalance is particularly significant in the five provinces with the highest demand for housing, economic hubs such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Malaga.
‘The housing problem is shaping the present and future of the Spanish economy and is becoming increasingly important,’ the institution points out. Home sales grew strongly in 2024, reaching a volume of more than 700,000 units, with annual growth in sales of 12%, nine out of ten of which were second-hand.
‘Growth in demand for housing that outstrips supply is sustaining the increase in property prices and widening the deficit,’ adds the Bank of Spain report.
As for the rental market, the real average price of rentals has grown by 12.5% between 2015 and 2023 for the housing stock rented under the common tax regime, adds the Bank of Spain. The largest increases are in large cities and tourist areas, where the average effort to pay rent ranges from 25% to 30% of gross income, they add.
In fact, the body recommends a stable regulatory framework that reinforces legal certainty for landlords, with the creation of public rental insurance and rent compensation programmes for landlords.
Furthermore, it believes that promoting public-private partnerships can increase the stock of affordable rental housing. It also proposes reducing administrative barriers to land development and construction, as well as promoting industrialised building to lower costs.
These housing measures must be reinforced with complementary measures in other areas, such as a policy dedicated to improving urban transport or structural reforms that improve the purchasing power of lower-income households.
Source: Idealista
Europa Press, David Marrero
4 July 2025, 9:44