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The Dream of Buying a House Turns into a Nightmare: Prices Soar by 80% in La Nucía and El Verger

The Dream of Buying a House Turns into a Nightmare: Prices Soar by 80% in La Nucía and El Verger

Eleven out of fourteen Valencian municipalities exceeding 3,000 euros per square metre are in the province of Alicante

Nicolás Van Looy

Benidorm

Miércoles, 8 de enero 2025, 12:06

While the polarised political debate often focuses on controversies more interesting to its protagonists than to the citizens, the housing price crisis continues to grow as a major concern for the public, for whom the dream of owning a home has long since turned into a genuine nightmare.

The data is clear. Across the Valencian Community, 2024 closed with an annual increase of nearly 20% in the sale price of second-hand homes, a rise that is even more pressing for buyers considering the already high prices from 2023.

This average increase of 20% has many nuances. For instance, the municipality in the Valencian Community where access to homeownership has surged the most is in the Alicante region of Marina Baixa: La Nucía. There, signing a contract for a second-hand home is 82.6% more expensive than twelve months ago.

This is according to a study by a well-known real estate portal, which reveals that the Valencian Community became the Spanish region with the highest increase in housing prices in 2024. Specifically, the price per square metre rose by 19.8% in the Valencian Community, closely followed by the Balearic Islands (19.5%).

Regions with over a 10% increase also include Madrid (13.6%), Murcia (13.6%), Canary Islands (13.0%), Andalusia (12.1%), and Galicia (10%).

On the other hand, only two autonomous communities saw a decrease in housing prices over the past year, though these were minimal reductions. Specifically, in Aragon (-0.6%) and La Rioja (-0.1%).

The Costa Blanca, Unaffordable

The picture painted by this reality, according to the study, is bleak for potential buyers in the province of Alicante. Of the fourteen municipalities in the entire Valencian Community where the purchase price exceeds 3,000 euros per square metre, eleven are located on the Costa Blanca.

These are, in descending order of average price, Calpe, with 4,190 euros/m²; l'Alfàs del Pi, with 4,043 euros/m²; Benijófar, with 4,027 euros/m²; Moraira, with 3,500 euros/m²; Benidorm, with 3,458 euros/m²; Dénia, with 3,363 euros/m²; Jávea, with 3,290 euros/m²; Finestrat, with 3,234 euros/m²; La Vila Joiosa, with 3,178 euros/m²; Altea, with 3,090 euros/m²; and El Campello, with 3,024 euros/m².

However, La Nucía does not appear on this list, despite seeing its average home access price skyrocket by 82.6% over the past twelve months to reach 2,760 euros/m². This 80% barrier is only surpassed in the Valencian Community by La Nucía and another Alicante locality, El Verger, where the increase was 81.2%, reaching 2,964 euros/m².

Regarding provincial capitals, Alicante ranks as the fourth with the highest annual increase, with a rise of 17.7%, bringing the price per square metre to 2,617 euros. This is far from Donostia, the most expensive in all of Spain, with a prohibitive 6,696 euros/m² (and where 2024 saw a 9.4% increase).

Below the National Average

Despite all this, the real estate portal's study also provides some data that, if not a relief for less affluent pockets, do reflect the often-used phrase 'we're not that bad'. On one hand, despite the significant price increase in the Valencian Community, bringing the average price per square metre in the region to 2,106 euros, this price is 12% below the national average, which stands at 2,389 euros/m².

Additionally, the study shows that we are still far from the peaks reached in 2007, the year of the bursting of the housing bubble that led to a global economic crisis from which many claim we have not fully recovered.

In this regard, it is noteworthy that the Valencian Community has seen a 13% reduction in the price per square metre of second-hand homes, far from the national average (-19%) and from Castilla La Mancha, Aragon, and La Rioja, where this decrease is 44% compared to 2007, when in April (the historical peak) the average price in Spain was 2,952 euros/m².

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todoalicante The Dream of Buying a House Turns into a Nightmare: Prices Soar by 80% in La Nucía and El Verger