An appraised value is not a purchase price
ISTAC's accompanying documentation defines the figure as the average value per square metre of those dwellings valued by the appraisal companies during the reference quarter. The release of 25 September says the same.
Two things follow. Nobody transferred 2,279.4 euros a square metre — an empresa de tasación set the value. And it is not an average across the Canary housing stock, only across the properties appraised in the quarter. If the mix of dwellings coming up for valuation shifts, the average shifts with it.
What the valuations were commissioned for, ISTAC does not say in this statistic, so neither do we. The number of valuations behind each quarter is not published either.
Below the Spanish average, not above it
The Canaries are at 2,279.4 euros, Spain at 2,355.0 — a gap of 3.21 per cent below. Both figures sit side by side in the ISTAC release, but the institute does not do that sum; it leads on the faster Canary increase. That is not wrong, it is half the statement.
At province level Santa Cruz de Tenerife ranks 8th and Las Palmas 9th of 52. Above them sit Madrid at 4,089.6 euros, the Balearics at 3,980.8 and Gipuzkoa at 3,514.6; at the bottom ISTAC names Ciudad Real at 854.2 and Jaén at 912.7 euros.
A level below the national average does not mean housing on the islands is more affordable. That is decided by the ratio to local incomes, about which the appraised value says nothing.
In real terms it is no record — our calculation, step by step
What follows is a calculation by cita.news, not a figure from ISTAC. In nominal terms the Canary appraised value is 23.81 per cent above the 1,841.0-euro peak. The INE's general consumer price index (table 50902, series IPC251852) stood at 87.486 in June 2008 and 119.942 in December 2025, a rise of 37.10 per cent. Divide the factor 1.2381 by 1.3710 and 90.3 per cent is left: in real terms about 9.7 per cent below 2008.
Take the Canary consumer price index from the same statistic instead of the Spanish one (series IPC255894: 91.479 in June 2008, 119.798 in December 2025, up 30.96 per cent) and the gap narrows to about 5.5 per cent below 2008. The choice of price index moves the result considerably; the sign does not change.
Both numbers are still generous. The INE series end in December 2025, because the institute rebased the index in January 2026. Inflation in 2026 is missing from the sum, so the real gap is if anything wider.
Rising faster — and still only sixth of 17
By our own count of the same cube, the Canary annual rate is enough for sixth place among the 17 autonomous communities. Stronger increases came in the Comunitat Valenciana at 15.74 per cent, Castilla y León at 15.10, Castilla-La Mancha at 14.68, Aragón at 14.65 and Cantabria at 14.62 per cent.
The weakest rises are in Extremadura at 8.34 and Navarre at 8.55 per cent. The Canaries are above the Spanish mean but behind five communities — several of them starting from far lower levels, which makes high percentages easier.
On the counting: the cube lists Ceuta and Melilla separately, as autonomous cities, at 2,214.9 euros (up 6.54 per cent) and 2,164.5 euros (up 8.60 per cent). Both rose more slowly, so sixth place holds either way.
Why two official series rise at different speeds
For the same quarter the INE's IPV shows an annual rise of 11.0 per cent in the Canaries, the appraised value 14.15 per cent. Both are official. The IPV measures the change in notarised purchase prices, the appraised value the level of the valuations carried out in the quarter — different populations, different questions.
Within the appraised values the movement is almost even: 13.03 per cent for dwellings up to five years old, 14.17 per cent for older ones. The levels differ more than the momentum. The next update brings the third quarter of 2026.