Building lifespan: why you pay the same for an old property

Buildings with a 50-year lifespan: why do you pay the same for an old flat as for a new one?

A second-hand flat that is 40 years old sells for the same price as a newly built one in the same area. Economic logic would suggest that wear and tear should knock hundreds of thousands of euros off the price. Yet the Spanish property market operates by its own rules, where a building's lifespan is a vague concept that nobody applies when valuing property.

There is no law that sets a building's lifespan. Regulations only require the first technical inspection at 40 years, and there is no time limit for demolition. Experts calculate the structure with a minimum duration of 50 years for standard buildings, although that does not miccionan they become uninhabitable at 50. In fact, there are century-old buildings still standing, such as those in the centre of Alicante, that defy any estimate.

Maintenance costs, the real Achilles' heel

What really makes the difference is the cost of upkeep. From 30-40 years onwards, maintenance costs rise exponentially: lifts, façades, roofs, electrical systems. According to technical estimates, a typical reinforced-concrete building has a lifespan of 70-80 years, but before the 70-year mark it can be more profitable to demolish it than to maintain it. Special assessments (derramas) are a drain that many buyers ignore when comparing prices.

Valuations do not reflect real wear and tear

Valuations use linear, increasing or decreasing depreciation formulas, but rarely take into account the state of repair or the renovations carried out. A building's value is calculated on the replacement cost minus a depreciation coefficient based on age, not on maintenance. This creates a paradox: two identical flats, one 10 years old and one 40, can be valued almost the same if the land is worth the same. Some reports estimate a lifespan of 90-95 years for certain glazed-brick constructions, which shows the lack of a uniform standard.

International references and conclusions

In Germany, the calculation lifespan for new builds is 80 years, conditioned by geology and seismic activity. In Spain, the technical consensus stands at 50 years for the structure, but experience shows that many buildings exceed it with rigorous maintenance. The problem is that this maintenance is not capitalised into the sale price, and the buyer ends up paying the same for a property that will demand heavy investment in the short term.

With these figures, the question hanging in the air is: are we paying for the building or for the land? Because if a building's lifespan were a real factor in pricing, the second-hand market would have been in crisis for years. It still isn't. Something doesn't add up.

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