Are you a number cruncher?

‘Due diligence’ is a term drilled into the discerning property purchaser; in practice this means using an independent solicitor, seeking out the best rates for foreign currency exchange and of course researching property prices to ensure you pay a fair market value. For properties in Spain the latter area of research has been made easy by the largest English language Spanish property portal kyero.com that lists 90,000 properties across Spain and produces a Spanish House Price Index with unbiased quarterly statistics on average prices of properties for sale. Delving further into statistical research, it won’t take you too long to uncover the MVIV, Spanish Ministry of Housing (mviv.es), who produce statistics formulated from Spanish property sales across all provinces.

So there are two key sources of statistics relating to what you should be paying for your Spanish home but whose figures should we trust?

Unfortunately the MVIV data and Kyero.com statistics are not directly comparable as the government body records the sale price per metre squared and Kyero.com documents the asking prices for property. This said, comparisons can be drawn from the data and looking at the annual growth percentages from the second quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2007, some interesting correlations can be noted giving perspective purchasers the best overall view of the property market.

Comparison between MVIV & Kyero* of the percentage increase or decrease in property prices of the common provinces in Spain (Q2 2006 – Q2 2007):

Province | Kyero | MVIV

Albacete -3.8% | 7.9%
Alicante 9.1% | 2.3%
Almeria 4.6% | 7.2%
Asturias 2.6% | 7.1%
Barcelona -1.1% | 5.2%
Cadiz 11.0% | 8.4%
Castellon 7.4% | 5.6%
Cordoba 2.3% | 8.2%
Girona 32.5% | 7.1%
Granada 13.4% | 9.9%
Huelva 57.0% |8.8%
Jaen 32.6% | 10.3%
Malaga 1.8% | 3.2%
Murcia 4.5% | 9.4%
Sevilla 11.8% | 6.3%
Tarragona 5.9% | 8.6%
Valencia 3.0%|7.1%

Islands:

Fuerteventura -1.1% | 6.0%
Gran Canaria 13.8% | 6.0%
Lanzarote 5.1% | 6.0%
Mallorca -0.1% | 7.8%
Tenerife 13.1% | 6.0%

Spain 6.1% | 5.8%

Overall, both Kyero.com and MVIV come to the same solid conclusion – that Spanish property prices have increased by around 6% from Q2 2006 to Q2 2007. This is firstly excellent news for prospective purchasers and indeed for people looking to sell their properties as it will help guide buyers price expectancy.

How Kyero.com and MVIV got to that conclusion however, is somewhat different. It can immediately be noted that there are some huge differences in figures from each body including the fact that according to MVIV not even one of the listed provinces declining in price over the year, with the smallest gain of 2.3% in Alicante and the largest gain achieved in Jaen at 10.3%.

Jaen is the subject of the strongest disagreement between sources. An increased number of foreign purchasers have certainly been buying in Jaen province and the advertised prices have increased across the year (Kyero.com reports an increase of 32.5% for property prices) however due to the illegal nature of some transactions the actual deal prices could contain a significant amount of ‘black money’ reducing the reported increase in property prices to a more understated 10.3% as reported by MVIV.

Huelva, Albacete, Girona, Barcelona were also subject to great discrepancy which Kyero.com has put down to the fact that a year ago they did not have a large number of properties listed on the portal in these areas which will distort the average figures.

Despite the incongruity with certain provinces, there are a number of similarities in the data. The following provinces have experienced roughly the same annual increase: Granada, Tarragona, Cadiz, Castellon, Malaga, Almeria, Sevilla, Murcia, Cordoba, Asturias, Alicante and Valencia. These are popular provinces with overseas visitors, therefore likely to have established estate agency networks and hence a more accurate view on the price per square metre and a large number of properties on the market to ensure accurate average price data.

The islands display how one source of data can be more accurate than the other, by merging the islands together into provinces, the detail in the individual island prices is lost with the MVIV stats. Although Kyero.com comes to the same conclusion as MVIV that property prices are hovering around the 6% growth rate for the islands as a whole, it is clear from their figures that there are some winners and losers which buyers should be aware of.

Both the MVIV and the Kyero.com statistics provide potential property purchasers with independent and faithful data on the Spanish market. Whilst bearing in mind how the data is collected, combining the two sources in research undoubtedly gives the most accurate view on property market values. For those in the process of property hunting Kyero.com has the largest selection of properties in Spain and for the most part the price indices are backed up by the Ministry of Housing statistics, certainly for the popular areas for purchasers.

To exercise your due diligence visit kyero.com and mviv.es.

* MVIV has no statistics for individual islands - The Balearic islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera are all the same Islas Baleares 'province'. The Canary Islands are split into two provinces. Las Palmas 'province' includes the islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The 'province' of Santa Cruz de Tenerife includes the islands of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.