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Sorry, you can't escape the rising prices
“Locals will head to the peripheries of big cities.” That's what we wrote a year ago in September in a deep dive into Spanish real estate that we titled “5 Changes Coming to Spain’s Boiling Property Market.”
In Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Valencia and Sevilla, locals are heading to the edges — not for the romance of a long commute, but because it’s the only place they can (sort of) afford.
Well, guess what? It's come true — or become even more true than it was — in the 14 months since. A Newtral analysis in August found that the periphery of cities has grown 50% faster than the urban centers they surround over the last decade, while a study from Fotocasa found that 23% of young Spaniards (18-24 years old) planned to move to towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
But there's a problem with this plan. When large groups flee cities for suburbs and towns, they bring high prices with them. As we wrote last year:
Those cheaper outskirts aren’t staying cheap. In many commuter towns, rental prices are rising faster than in the cities they surround. And when it comes to sale prices, 47% of municipalities of over 25,000 people saw 10%+ year-over-year increases during the last quarter of 2024
But that was then. This is now. A new study from Tinsa, a home appraisal company, reveals how much prices have risen in large secondary municipalities — and gives a hint at what happens next.
Let’s dive in:
