Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 18th March 2010
Spanish official house price index invites ridicule
The latest statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) report that house prices fell just 4.3% last year.
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User Comments
Use fotocasa.com statistics. They are based on this property portals stats. Much more realistic.
ARMANDO,
MARJAL
My belief is that the reason for these statistics being completely wrong relates to the information being supplied by the registrars and 'black' money. Traditionally, it is reputed that approximately 30% of the price for any property was paid in cash and not recorded. With the strengthening of money-laundering discipline the prices being recorded are now closer to the full price being paid. In a level market this would have shown an increase of prices of up to 30%. However as the market has fallen by approximately 40%, it is only the difference that is showing i.e. approximately 10%.
The other answer could of course be that the figures are being deliberately manipulated to avoid the assets of the Spanish banks being decimated and many being shown to have failed in the same way as others have done in other countries.
Surveyor,
Survey Spain
Spanish Property Insight point out that these figures are based on statistics from the Notaria in Spain. Which without any doubt is inherently flawed.
During 'boom time' as any Spain agent agent will cautiously confirm, notarized property prices are at least 10% and often as much as 50% below the true sale price.
This practise has been firmly discouraged and in some areas eliminated over the past couple of years.
Add to this the fact that, where there is negative equity on the property, the vendor will gain no advantage from an under declared sale price.
So what the INE is actually comparing is the current sale prices, with values that previously much lower than the true sale prices, hence the disparity in relative house price falls.
Andy Stevenson,
RealPress.net