Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 1st October 2009
More misleading property price figures
Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) has published its latest figures which suggest that the rate of price falls across Spain maybe slowing.
The report shows resale and new build prices down 7.7% in 12 months to the end of Q2 with some of the biggest declines in Catalonia (-13.3), Madrid (-12.4%) and the Balearic Islands (-9.7%).
The good news is that prices fell only moderately in the popular overseas property regions of Murcia (-1.3%) and Andalucia (-3.3%).
Compared to previous figures, the rate of price falls is declining which suggests the market may be bottoming out. The problem however is that the numbers do not chime with empirical evidence in the market.
Like the
TINSA index, the numbers only reflect asking prices and not the prices that properties are actually sold for.
According to Mark Stucklin, the figures would have you believe that new build prices have only dropped 6% since the crisis began. Most Spanish developments listed in our directory (link to Spanish developments page on GE) have dropped their prices by at least 20%.
With buyer confidence fragile, there is a real need for an authoritative source of property price figures which paint a fair picture of the market.
More coverage on
Spanish Property Insight.
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User Comments
If there is no transaction volume what is the "real" price? It is dictated by whatever the last property sold for, however in the long term these levels are going to prove mispriced. This is more obvious in the area that we operate (Los Arqueros Golf in Benahavis, Marbella) where the properties are as popular as ever and have dropped only slightly. This has not deterred buyers of property in Los Arqueros, on the contrary it brought more enquiries with people looking for bargain properties. Location, as always, location. To view our properties in Los Arqueros visit our website at http://www.losarquerosestates.com
Ian Cooper,
Los Arqueros Estates
Personally, I think that real estate prices in Slovakia at least older real estate has still not reached a fair value price bubble is still that in my view the older property may fall about 25 percent
Juraj Kelemen,
Slovakia reality, spol.s.r.o.
Sir, Having been based here for some years, including the last recession to hit here, there is no doubt that the market, certainly on The Costa Del Sol, has not only bottomed out but is showing some signs of recovery. The amount of property for sale has reduced markedly owing to the local regional government refusing permission to complete on illegal projects. At last demand and supply are approaching parity after some years of over production. Our numbers of tours and buys are 33% higher than this time last year and the hope is that these small, very, green shoots will be nurtured by the recent relaxing of bank lending criteria.
steve lee,
property4abroad