Methodology & Data Sources
How we collect, process and present European real-estate market data.
Data sources
| Source | What it provides | Coverage | Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fotocasa / Pisos.com (aggregated) | Asking price percentiles (P10–P90), counts, mean price | Spain, all municipios with ≥30 listings | Weekly |
| INE Atlas de Distribución de Renta | Net household income, mean per person, Gini, poverty | Spain: all 8,100 municipios | Yearly (2-year lag) |
| INE Padrón Municipal Continuo | Population, age, gender; 1y / 5y growth | Spain: all 8,100 municipios | Yearly (1 Jan snapshot) |
| INE IPV (Índice de Precios de Vivienda) | Price index (2015=100), YoY, QoQ, new vs second-hand | Spain: 17 CCAA + national | Quarterly |
| MIVAU Compraventa | Official transactions: count, avg sold price, foreign buyer % | Spain: 52 provincias + CCAA + national | Quarterly (45-day lag) |
| HM Land Registry (GB) | Official UK transactions | GB: ~687k transactions | Monthly |
| DVF (FR) | Official French transactions | FR: ~330k transactions | Biannual |
| VZD (LV), other EU gov sources | Official transactions | LV, NO, SE, FI, EE, SI, DK | Yearly |
| Eurostat HPI | Country-level price index | CZ, HU, BG, SK, HR, AT (fallback only) | Quarterly |
Derived metrics
Gross Rental Yield (%)
yield = median_monthly_rent × 12 / median_sale_price × 100
Both medians come from the same property subtype (apartment) and location slice to minimize mix bias. Yields outside 2–12% are flagged as outliers — typical Spanish residential yields are 4–7%.
Affordability (years)
affordability = median_sale_price / annual_household_income
Interpretation: how many years of total household income are needed to buy the median property. Under 6 years is affordable; over 15 years is highly unaffordable. Tourist-heavy markets often show high affordability figures that reflect international buyer demand rather than local purchasing power.
Asking vs Sold Gap (%)
gap = (listing_median − mivau_avg_sold) / mivau_avg_sold × 100
Positive gap means listings are priced above actual sold prices — the larger the gap, the more negotiation room. 5–15% is typical; over 20% signals an overpriced asking market. Only measurable at provincia level (MIVAU does not publish per-municipality sold prices).
Market Momentum
Year-over-year price change from INE IPV (regional, CCAA level). Used to compare city-level trends against official regional benchmarks.
Foreign Buyer Share
Share of residential purchases made by non-Spanish residents, reported quarterly by MIVAU at provincia level. Buyer nationality breakdown beyond "foreign / domestic" is not published by MIVAU.
Update frequency & freshness
- Daily: materialized views refresh (listings aggregates, derived metrics)
- Quarterly: INE IPV + MIVAU fetched on the 5th / 20th of each new quarter's month
- Yearly: INE Atlas (Oct) + INE Padrón (Jul)
- Monthly: automated market reports generated on the 3rd
Known limitations
- Spain coverage is deepest — fotocasa/pisos aggregate scrapers and full INE integration. Other 5 countries rely on government transactions only (FR DVF, GB Land Registry, etc.) and are lighter on asking-price data.
- MIVAU foreign-buyer data is provincial, not per-city. Autonomías that are single provinces (Madrid, Murcia, Balears, Cantabria, Asturias, Navarra, La Rioja, Ceuta, Melilla) use CCAA-level figures as provincial proxies.
- Rankings apply a minimum sample threshold of 30 active listings per city to exclude thin-data outliers.
- Price percentiles from fotocasa/pisos are derived via binary search over their price filters, not raw per-listing data. Precision is €500–€1,000 per percentile.
- District-level enriched data is available for Spanish cities where fotocasa/pisos publish district-level facets. Other countries currently show city-level only.
Not advice
Everything on this site is market information, not financial, legal or tax advice. Property investment involves material risk and country-specific regulation. Consult a licensed professional before acting on any data shown here.