House sales dawn by 43%
07.01.2009
The collapse of the real estate market is continuing to strongly affect real estate sales, which in October dropped by 43 per cent on the year for houses not newly-built and 28 per cent for new ones, according to the data released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The slow down in sales, caused mostly by credit restrictions on families beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007, has been worsened by the sharp increase in unemployment over the past few months. Sales of empty housing in October saw fewer than 40,000 operations, the second lowest level in the year and since records began to be kept in January 2007, after the lowest all-time figure seen in August with 34,300 operations. Also mortgages were in decline.
According to INE, the average amount of loans to buy houses dropped in October for the ninth consecutive month to 135,200 euros, 10.4pct less than the same month in 2007. Also the number of houses mortgaged was down by 33.9pct, with a total of 64,429 signed.
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