Wallapop sales freeze: secondhand market signals recession

The Wallapop pause no one in Moncloa wants to see

Thousands of items with dozens of 'favorites' but no purchases. The secondhand platform has become an unofficial thermometer of the real economy: when people mark objects but don't buy them, the wallet is empty. Sellers have been months noting a collapse in transactions, and the data they handle points to a purchasing power crisis that official indicators do not reflect.

The inflation that doesn't show up in the papers

Those who have been selling on Wallapop for years claim that the cumulative inflation of the last two years is much higher than that published by the INE and the Government. 'The data on the shopping basket is false,' they summarize. It's not about sirloin or turbot, but basic foods whose prices have skyrocketed far above the general HICP. This deviation explains why disposable income has evaporated: what was previously spent on secondhand whims now goes to fill the fridge.

The tax authority effect: less supply and less confidence

From a certain sales threshold (2,000 euros annually or 30 transactions), the tax authority (Hacienda) requires identification and declaration. Many private sellers have chosen to remove their products or limit themselves to in-person sales, outside the app. This reduces the available supply and makes what remains more expensive, because those who still sell must cover fiscal costs. The result is a platform emptied of attractive items and filled with professional resellers, the exact opposite of what a consumer looking to save wants.

Rents out of control: 80% of income on four walls

One of the analyses that has gained the most weight in recent months links the Wallapop pause with the real estate market madness. Flats that were rented for 400 or 500 euros two years ago now cost 1,200; a room is around 500. With this landscape, salaries barely cover survival. People stop buying even secondhand, and when they do, they demand almost giveaway prices because the priority is paying for shelter.

The paradox of showing off

While Wallapop sinks, roads and hotels were full during the May holiday. The apparent contradiction has one reading: spending on leisure and travel works as a Veblen good –the scarcer money is, the more one needs to appear not to lack–, while buying used objects is the refuge of those who have already accepted they are going downhill. Wallapop, by contrast, is the canary in the coal mine: when the bird stops singing, the real economy is already in the pit.

Summer presents itself as the ultimate test. If even during moving season and wardrobe changes the market does not react, the 'soft landing' story will be left without passengers.

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