Consultancy firm Savills sees no limit to Spain’s housing shortage. As its representatives explained during the Living Trends V event, where investors, developers and operators analysed the state of and challenges facing Spain’s residential property market, the cumulative housing shortage will exceed 850,000 units by the end of 2027, compared with the current 755,000.
Reasons Behind Spain’s Growing Housing Shortage
In their view, the downward revision of forecasts for the formation of new households by the National Statistics Institute (INE) does not indicate a decline in housing needs but instead reflects difficulties in accessing the market. Although the INE’s latest demographic forecasts reduce the number of households expected by 2039 by one million, Savills believes this is linked, among other factors, to young people taking longer to become independent and a growing number of people sharing the same home. Consequently, these statistics measure “existing households” rather than “desired households”.
Meanwhile, the significant imbalance between limited supply and consistently high demand continues to drive prices upward, with the pace of growth even exceeding initial forecasts. This situation persists despite a 2.5% decline in residential property transactions in the first half of 2026, according to figures presented by the consultancy. Nevertheless, the number of transactions recorded in the first half of the year was the second-highest for that period since 2007.
Savills is not alone in forecasting a growing housing shortage: the Bank of Spain has also highlighted this trend. At the Forbes Economic Summit 2026, it was stated that the shortage could exceed one million residential properties in 2028, representing an increase of approximately 300,000 compared with the current level.
Investment in Operational Real Estate
At the same time, actively managed real estate assets have accounted for 60% of investment since the beginning of 2026, amounting to more than €9 billion. This category includes hotels, apartment buildings, flex living and coliving properties, and student residences. Over the past five years, these assets have represented more than 50% of real estate investment.
This trend confirms the strengthening position of so-called operational real estate (OpRE) as one of the market’s main driving forces and reinforces the operator’s role in creating asset value.
Unlike the traditional model based on ownership, income generation and asset appreciation, investors are increasingly adopting strategies in which management becomes the primary driver of value creation. This approach, inherited from the hospitality sector, is encouraging investment growth in residential assets that are becoming increasingly specialised and diversified across different formats and categories, depending on the target residents’ profiles and stages of life – from student accommodation to residences for older people.
Main Obstacles to Increasing Housing Supply
As for the obstacles the sector continues to face in stimulating growth in Spain’s housing supply, the main challenges are labour shortages in the construction industry, a lack of development-ready land and the decisive role of public authorities in approving and implementing new projects.
