Half of the apartments are bought in cash despite record prices

The unstoppable rise in housing prices over the last year contrasts with the reality revealed by official statistics from the Association of Notaries: half of all apartments are purchased in cash, despite their price reaching new highs, at €1,836 per square meter in May, a 6.7% increase. This apparent contradiction has a very simple explanation: "access to housing is becoming increasingly polarized," says Sergio Nasarre, professor of Civil Law at the URV and director of the UNESCO Chair in Housing.

For some, buying an apartment is as simple as putting money on the table. This is primarily the upper-middle class, both residents and foreigners, heirs, and investors, Nasarre points out. For others, neither the buying and selling market nor the rental market—also experiencing skyrocketing prices despite income containment in Catalonia and rampant shortages—is an option. “Young people and those on lower-middle incomes are being forced out of both conventional buying and renting, and this only creates more tension and inequality,” adds the URV professor.

A hospitality worker needs up to 25 full salaries for a house in Barcelona or Madrid.

Cash purchases reached their lowest point at the height of the real estate bubble. At that time, only 40% of transactions were completed without mortgage financing, according to the Association of Notaries. From then on, cash purchases increased, peaking in 2013, when housing prices plummeted due to the housing crisis and access to credit became more difficult. At that point, they began to decline. In 2024, 47.3% of homes purchased in Spain had mortgage financing, and the remainder (52.7%) were purchased on the table. The latest figures for May 2025, released this week, indicate that the proportion of financing is increasing, although cash purchases remain close to 50%. These data show a higher proportion of mortgage-free purchases than those from the Property Registry, which the INE uses, because homes paid for in cash are not legally required to be registered, according to the Notary Association. Therefore, there are cases in which the deed of sale is never executed or is executed some time after the transaction. Their information, these professionals maintain, offers a real-time snapshot of the transactions that actually take place each month.

Wages, savings capacity, and family support make the difference. A UGT analysis released just a few days ago emphasizes this aspect. Workers in the hospitality and retail industries—jobs with a high proportion of young people, those without higher education, or migrants—are facing serious difficulties both in purchasing and paying rent in the most stressed areas.

According to this report, a worker in this field needs more than 52 years of net salary (dedicating 40% of it) to buy an average home. In cities like Catalonia or Madrid, the price of a 60 m² apartment can exceed €300,000, which is equivalent to between 20 and 25 full annual salaries of a hospitality employee. "The salary tables of the agreements analyzed, compared with housing prices, show that it is impossible to access an apartment through ownership," the report states.

Current housing policies make it difficult for middle and low-income people to acquire property.

In the case of rent, the situation is even more dramatic. In sectors such as hospitality, retail, and cleaning, workers often have to spend close to 100% of their net salary on rent in cities like Madrid or Barcelona. "In the best-case scenario, the threshold of 40% of net salary recommended by international organizations is far exceeded," they argue. In the 195 situations analyzed by the study, only in 15% of cases does rent represent less than 40% of net salary. "With current wages, workers are effectively being forced out of the housing market," they conclude.

For Sergio Nasarre, current housing policies aren't helping either. "They make it difficult for middle- and low-income people to acquire a home, and renting isn't an option either." As a result, precarious situations like renting out rooms are on the rise.