Sales Of Homes In Spain Slump 26% In Dec

Source : The Business Times, February 17, 2009

(MADRID) The number of homes sold in recession-bound Spain fell 26 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, official figures showed yesterday.

The National Statistics Institute said 32,403 homes were sold in December versus 43,798 in the same month a year earlier.

Sales had dropped 35.6 per cent in November.

The number of homes sold in all of 2008 was down 28.6 per cent from 2007, with the used home market the hardest hit, recording a decline of 39.3 per cent compared with a drop of 14.1 per cent for new homes.

Spain has recorded continued falls in house sales of over 25 per cent in almost every month since the government started publishing the figures at the start of 2008.

The abrupt end of Spain's property boom last year left an excess stock of around a million homes at the end of last year, the managing director of real estate surveyor Tinsa, Luis Leirdo, said last week.

According to the surveyor, house prices in Spain were 10.8 per cent lower in January than a year earlier and could drop 20 per cent this year. -- Reuters