The number of building completion certificates in Spain stood at 20,720 units between July and September 2025, compared to 23,186 during the same period a year earlier. This drop of over 10% is the largest ever recorded in a third quarter and the sharpest overall, trailing only the 11.4% decline in the first quarter of 2025 and the 10.9% drop in the second quarter of 2020, at the height of the Covid crisis.
These figures represent the new homes that actually reached the market, marking a downward trend that has now persisted for nine months. This decline occurs as housing prices—both for sale and for rent—hit new highs across the country. The average value of open-market housing stood at €2,153 per square meter after growing 12.1% year-on-year, representing the highest level in the entire recent series. Currently, it is estimated that the “affordability effort” required to buy a home stands at 7.8 years of gross income.
The drop in activity is not limited to this single indicator. The decline in completion certificates is accompanied by a parallel decrease in the total number of finished homes, which stood at 21,027 units in the third quarter of the year—8.8% less than in the same period of 2024. This evolution confirms the cooling of the sector at an especially delicate moment for the residential market, where the lack of available supply has become one of the primary factors driving the generalized surge in prices.
