Recovery in coastal areas overshadowed by falling property prices in Spain
Falling property prices in Spain are stabilising but a small recovery in coastal areas has been reversed, according to the latest real estate prices to be published.
The Spanish Property Market General Index reached 1908 points in June, just 0.4% down on the May figures. It means the average year on year price fall is 4%.
The index, published by Tinsa, says, however that there has been a downturn on the Mediterranean Coast popular with second and holiday homebuyers.
‘Improvement in the monthly index in the months leading up to the summer in April and May and returned to a negative trend to reach a low for the year of around 2020 points,’ the report from Tinsa says.
This has led to the year on year decline for the area reaching 5.2%, up from 4.1% in May. Prices in Metropolitan areas fell 5% year on year, and 0.7% from May to June.
Compared with the peak of the market prices on the Mediterranean coast have fallen 22%, are down 17.9% in metropolitan areas, down 17.4% in capitals and large cities, down 14.3% in other municipalities and down 14% in the Balearic and Canary islands.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Housing show similar declines, putting the average fall at 3.7% over the 12 months to the end of June.
These figures shows price falls of 18% in Malaga since the peak of the market, 17% in Alicante and 16% in Murcia. It puts prices back to where they were around 2006.
The actual market is improving though, according to real estate sales figures. Those from the National Institute of Statistics indicate that the market expanded 10.6% in May compared with the same month in 2009.
Excluding social housing, there were 33,873 residential property transactions in May, up 10% since the previous months. Sales increased for both new and re-sale properties.
There are considerable regional variations. Sales fell 17% in Malaga and 11% in Murcia but increased 50% in Huelva, 26% in Catalonia and were up 24% in the Canary Islands.