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Date Published: 23/06/2023
Almost half a million vacant new builds in Spain that no-one wants to buy
Most of these brand new homes are situated on the Mediterranean coast of Spain
Affordable housing is in such short supply in Spain that the government is struggling to keep up with the demand in many areas. It seems unbelievable then that at the tail end of last year, 444,546 new-builds were standing empty, a huge figure that represents 1.7% of the total housing stock in the country.
The vast majority were built by developers during the real estate frenzy at the turn of the century and since nobody wants to buy them, they’ve remained unoccupied ever since.
A large proportion of the brand-new properties are situated along the Mediterranean coast in provinces like Alicante, Castellón, Murcia and Almeria although Madrid tops the list with a staggering 48,124 unsold, empty homes.
The enormous volume of new housing for which there are no buyers has been a problem since the real estate bubble burst at the end of the 2000s. In 2009, 649,780 of these unwanted homes saturated the market, the highest figure ever recorded.
Since then, the new housing stock for sale has barely dipped by 32% and in the last 14 years, just 205,000 new builds have been sold in all of Spain.
But in a country where reasonably-priced homes are one of the biggest social problems, why are these properties just sitting there with no prospective buyers? It’s their age, for one thing, according to the Bank of Spain, which has suggested that homes built more than a decade ago no longer tick the boxes for most potential purchasers, who are looking for more space and energy efficiency.
And since so many are owned by large developers they’ve remained empty for years with little or no maintenance or upkeep.
There’s also the issue of location, as a large proportion of the houses aren’t in the cities, where the most pressing price problems are.
Image: Pexels
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