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The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship of crime on housing prices during the economic recovery of the housing sector in Spain (2014–2019).

For this purpose, it is used a regional panel data in first differences for the period 2014–2019 in order to control the endogeneity and multicollinearity that these models usually present in the empirical literature.

The results show that it takes between one and two years for housing prices in Spain to respond negatively to an increase in crime. Of the eight types of crime analysed, only four of them establish statistically significant relationships with housing prices, while robbery with violence (−2.2%) and burglary with forced entry (−0.5%) have the greatest negative impact on housing prices. Lastly, the results highlight the fact that the category “other crimes against property” – which includes squatting – is the only crime typology that has an immediate effect on housing prices (−1.7%).

These results demonstrate that the more serious property crimes have a greater quantitative negative impact on housing prices. These crimes combine both a violent nature and the fact that they affect property, thus generally causing greater harm to individuals’ emotional well-being and perception of criminality. These findings have direct implications for crime prevention strategies, as the housing market in Spain appears to be more affected by this type of criminal activity. Consequently, public institutions should focus their efforts on mitigating these crimes.

This is the first study that examines the role of crime in the recovery of the real estate sector in Spain following the economic crisis of 2008. It is also one of the pioneering works for the European context, utilizing a panel data approach with first differences and incorporating various types of criminal activities within the same model.

Crime increased in Spain during the period of 2017–2019 after a decade of decline. This coincides with severe housing deprivation multiplying by three in just four years, affecting 3.4% of the population in 2020. However, no research has been found that analyzes whether this deterioration of the physical conditions of housing and its environmental elements has impacted the level of crime in Spain. This study aims to analyze how housing deprivation affects crime in the Spanish context.

For this purpose, different items that are considered by Eurostat as elements of housing deprivation are used. The difference generalized method of moments estimator is used for 16 Spanish regions that comprises the period from 2013 to 2019.

The results suggest that certain structural and environmental elements of housing are positively associated with crime: space (0.5% and 0.4%) and high housing expenditure (0.4% and 0.5%) are positively correlated with the two dependent variables; the lack of light and overcrowding stand out as they establish a positive and statistically significant association with four out of the six analyzed crime categories; the absence of lighting effect reaches up to 1.8% and 1.7% in the case of violent robberies and vehicle theft, respectively. Finally, pollution is negatively associated with robbery with violence (−1.9%), theft (−0.7%) and robbery with force (−0.5%).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines whether this deterioration of the physical conditions of housing has impacted the level of crime in Spain. It is also pioneering at the European level by using nonmonetary dimensions of inequality such as housing.