Wednesday 14 September 2011

Sitges has Catalonia's most expensive housing market


Back in 2005, Sitges (Garraf) joined Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès in what can be described as an exclusive club of Catalan municipalities where the average selling price for existing homes was above 4.000 Euro per square meter. Then we entered the ongoing financial crisis, with the negative effects it has had on real estate prices, and still - as of Q2 2011 statistics from Idealista.com - housing in Sitges stands out for still selling at € 4.253. In the whole of Spain, only Donostia/San Sebastián is more expensive (€ 4.719), while comparable prices in Barcelona and Sant Cugat have dropped to € 3.752 and € 3.681, respectively.

To explain the resilience of Sitges, real estate agents point to the high share of European expats (21% of the local population), the town’s impeccable reputation as a tourist resort and its location near the Barcelona Prat Airport but also to its popularity in parts of the gay community with a high purchasing power.

Comprehensive price overviews are available at Idealista.com and here we can see that the equivalent  Q2 2011 prices in the rest of Penedès were € 2.356 in Vilanova i la Geltrú, € 1.881 in el Vendrell, € 1.726 in Vilafranca del Penedès and € 1.633 in Igualada.
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Read more in Spanish: El Periódico

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