Press Release 30/07/2021

BUILDINGS AND PREMISES CENSUS 2020

In 2020, the number of buildings in the Basque Country stood at 225,679

80% of buildings were destined, totally or partially, for housing

In 2020, there were 225,679 buildings in the Basque Country, of which 58.7% were buildings comprising only housing, 21.9% were mixed use, i.e. the building consisted of housing and premises, and the remaining 19.5% of buildings only had premises, according to Eustat data.

By province, Álava stood out, where six out of ten buildings were for residential use only (30,649 units); to a lesser extent, Bizkaia exceeded the Basque Country average for residential-only buildings, with 62,455 (59.3%); and Gipuzkoa was below the average for the Autonomous Region, with 39,334 buildings (55.4%). With regard to use as housing and premises, Bizkaia (24.2%) and Gipuzkoa (23.3%) were notable, with two out of every ten buildings destined for mixed use. In relation to buildings consisting entirely of premises, the province of Álava stood out with 11,402 units (23.1%).

Regarding the capitals, the total number of buildings ranged from 14,533 in Vitoria-Gasteiz to 12,535 in Bilbao, and 13,415 in San Sebastián. In the distribution of units according to building use, Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz were notable for their mixed use, with 57.5% and 37.7%, respectively. San Sebastián stood out in terms of both the percentage of residential-only buildings (52.6%) and buildings consisting solely of premises (20.1%).

According to building type, residential units stood out, accounting for 181,757 buildings, eight out of every ten units, followed by industrial buildings with 17,974 (8%), commercial units with 5,475 (2.4%) and offices with 4,637 buildings (2.1%). The lowest figures were for sports and entertainment buildings, with 3,485 (1.5%), religious centres, with 2,860 (1.3%) and buildings destined for cultural purposes, with 2,459 (1.1%). Hospitality establishments (1,086) and health and social services buildings (844) occupied the bottom of the list (0.9%).

The number of buildings with 10 or more storeys exceeded 4,000

Less than 2% of buildings in the Basque Country had 10 or more storeys, taking into account both floors above and below ground level, including basements and covered lower levels if they contained garages or storage rooms.

The figures for buildings of 1 storey, 2-3 storeys and 4-9 storeys were similar, representing 27.7%, 38.9% and 31.5%, respectively. Figures were even lower for buildings of 10 or more storeys, of which there were 4,348. Only 7 municipalities had more than 100 buildings of 10 or more storeys: Bilbao, which stood out with 1,510, San Sebastián (711), Vitoria-Gasteiz (665), Barakaldo (254), Basauri (148), Santurtzi (104) and Portugalete (100).

44% of residential buildings had a storage room and 33% had a garage

If we only consider buildings predominantly destined for housing, 44% had a storage room, 33.3% had a garage and 28% had a lift. The differences between the percentages of buildings with a storage room were slight among the provinces: from the highest proportion of 47.8% in Gipuzkoa, to the lowest of 41.2% in Bizkaia, and 44.7% in Álava.

Gipuzkoa had the highest percentage of buildings with a garage, 42.9%, followed by Bizkaia (30.4%) and Álava (25.9%). Something similar occurred with regard to lifts, given that 33.7% of buildings had one in Gipuzkoa, 27.1% in Bizkaia and 21.6% in Álava.

As for the three capitals, the situation is a little different: Bilbao had the largest proportion of buildings with a lift (61.4%) and with storage rooms (46.8%); San Sebastián had the highest percentage of garages (44.8%); lastly, Vitoria-Gasteiz stood in the middle with regard to lifts (54.6%) and garages (32.4%), while it came close to the figure for San Sebastián in terms of storage rooms: 41.8% and 42.4%, respectively.

Half of residential buildings were ten minutes away from a pharmacy and 70% were twenty minutes away from a health centre

The 2020 Buildings and Premises Census was combined with the Inventory of Facilities and Services to produce data on the number of facilities and services in the immediate vicinity of buildings.

The first thing to note is that, among the 9 selected facilities less than a 10-minute walk away, Bar/Cafe stood out, close to 62.4% of buildings. The other facilities were present in proportions ranging between 44.6% for Food Shops and 49.8% for Pharmacies, with fewer Greengrocers and Fishmongers (around 37%).

Likewise, 74.5% of buildings had a restaurant less than 20 minutes away; 70.5% of buildings had a health centre; 62.3% had a Primary School; and 58% had a bank branch, all less than 20 minutes away. There were fewer post offices (46.5%), libraries (39.5%) and, lastly, cinemas/theatres, which were 20 minutes away for less than 20% of buildings.

Two thirds of spaces were valued between €10,001 and €100,000

The 2020 Buildings and Premises Census also provided insight into the detailed typology of use of these spaces, where dwellings were by far the main use, given that there were almost 1.07 million, followed some way behind by businesses (141,973) and industries (38,132).

The spaces varied greatly not only in terms of use, but also with regard to other characteristics such as surface area and age, thus making it difficult to compare them.

As regards cadastral valuation, it should be taken into account that the value depends on factors such as the location of the property, construction costs, the benefits of promotional business activity and market circumstances and values, among others.

These figures show that more than two thirds of spaces had a cadastral valuation of between €10,001 and €100,000, divided between each stratum, whereas 0.3% cost less than €1,000 and 2.9% exceeded €300,000.

The percentage of cadastral values of more than €100,000 doubled in the province of Gipuzkoa, where 56.4% of spaces exceeded said value, while in the Basque Country as a whole, this figure stood at 28.2%, which was very similar to the percentage in Álava (24.2%). Bizkaia was the province with the lowest proportion of spaces with this value (12.2%).

Álava stood out due to the concentration of cadastral values in the €50,001-€100,000 range (45.6%) and Bizkaia was notable for a similar concentration in the previous stratum, €10,001-€50,000 (45%).

At a municipal level, only 10 municipalities had a percentage of spaces valued at €300,001 or more that exceeded 5%, of which 6 were in Gipuzkoa, 3 in Álava and only 1 in Bizkaia. They were as follows: Hondarribia (15.1%), San Sebastián (14.9%), Aduna (8.6%), Legutio (8.3%), Zarautz and Oiartzun (7.8%), Zuia (6.9%), Laukiz and Olaberria (6.0%) and, lastly, Elburgo/Burgelu (5.4%).

METHODOLOGICAL NOTE:

The data are provisional. In this edition, the census universe has been expanded to include buildings destined exclusively for agricultural and livestock use. For this reason, and due to the inclusion of new sources, the data are not strictly comparable with the 2010 Buildings and Premises Census.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel.: 945 01 75 62