Orihuela is amongst the list of Spanish coastal towns where the price per square metre of residential housing has experienced the greatest increase in the last year. This is revealed by a report prepared by Tinsa Research with data referring to the second quarter of 2024.
The study analyses a total of 86 Spanish municipalities that are characterised by “a significant concentration of population and real estate market activity”. In the Valencian area, six towns from the province of Alicante are included in the ranking, Alcoi, Benidorm, Elche, Elda, Orihuela, and Torrevieja.
Orihuela stands out as the municipality where the value of residential housing has increased the most in the last year (12.5%), not only at the regional level, but also at the national level. Also growing in double digits are Vélez-Málaga (10.7%) and Marbella (10.6%). Below the latter, Gandia ‘sneaks’ into the top positions with an interannual increase of 9.4%. All of them show growth more than three times higher than the national average, which stands at 3.1%, a figure largely caused by the containment of prices (and even a decrease) in the northern part of the country.
At the regional level, Benidorm, and Sagunto, with an increase of 7.4%, follow the towns already mentioned. Behind them are Torrevieja (7.2%), Torrent (5.5%), Alcoi (4.3%) and Elche (3.8%). Of the Valencian municipalities analysed in this study, only Elda has experienced a decline in residential housing prices, of barely 0.5%.
In addition, several towns in Alicante have a price per square metre higher than the average for the province: these are Benidorm (23%), Orihuela (4%) and Torrevieja (2%). Furthermore, in the case of Benidorm the value is 12% higher than that of the provincial capital. In the rest of the municipalities of the Comunitat analysed, the price is lower both than that of the capital and the provincial average.
Residential Buyers Being Excluded
Whilst the argument about tourism rental properties preventing the ability to buy homes for residential use is highlighted at the moment, this study also aims to analyse how accessible it is for an average household to purchase a home. To do so, it is based on the annual theoretical effort ratio, which shows the percentage of income that a household would have to allocate to the first payment of a mortgage that covers 80% of the value of an average home.
56% of the Spanish municipalities studied have effort rates above the reasonable 35%, and 15 exceed 45%, thus being in a critical state. The most extreme case is that of Marbella: an average household in the Malaga town would have to spend 61% of its income on paying the first mortgage instalment.
At the regional level, Torrevieja (42%) and Orihuela (40.6%) exceed the reasonable level, while Benidorm (44.9%) is close to being considered critical. Behind them is Elche (32.9%), and Torrent (29.6%), Gandia (28.8%) and Sagunt (26%) are below 30%. In Elda the effort rate is 23.1%, while in Alcoi it is 19.8%, one of the lowest of the 86 Spanish municipalities included in the study.
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