Clear signs of Balearic property market recovery

Tinsa, the property valuation consultancy, has identified Santanyi, Soller and Calvia as the three coastal municipalities in the Balearics where the price of housing increased the greatest in the first quarter this year: percentage rises were, respectively, 5.5%, 5.4% and 4.5%.
There were, though, a total of only five municipalities where there was an increase: the other two were Palma (1.8%) and Alcudia (1%).
In certain instances, the fall in price was over 10%, as was the case in Capdepera  (-13.7%), Sant Lluis in Minorca (-13.3%) and Andratx (-10.5%).
Nevertheless, the consultancy suggests that the prices reflect the solidity of the high-end market which has a more positive and different dynamic to the rest of the market and which is one predominantly with sales to foreign buyers.
The Balearics has been one of the regions to have come through the crisis better than others. Though prices have fallen, they have fallen by less than the national average of 42%. In Soller, for example, prices have gone down by 26%. The coastal areas of the Balearics, therefore, have some of the highest prices per square metre in Spain: five of the most expensive places in Spain are in the Balearics. Of these, Calvia at 2,520 euros per square metre and Andratx (2,422) were surpassed only by Sitges (2,622) in the first quarter.
Tinsa sees clear signs of the property market recovering in the Balearics, as it also does in Alicante, Malaga and Cadiz. Transactions in 2014 were up in almost all municipalities, with the highest percentage increases having been in Es Castell (Minorca), Palma and Alaior, also in Minorca: 72%, 51% and 45% respectively.