Latest house price news from Spain

 Spanish house prices -3.8% Q/Q, -3.3% last, down 15.2% Y/Y

 Not at all surprising and they will continue to fall while the demand stays as low as it is. 

Interesting data & no surprise at all with 25% unemployed etc.

However would be interested to hear if certain parts of Spain continue to defy the general downtrend eg Georgia recently explained that prices in his region had started to escalate.

Harry

 It will be good if the banks would release their inventory on to the market so that it could find a floor...  but that would be asking too much from the politicans!  better to spend money destroying houses than let the free market work.

 I am sure Georgia will speak for himself, but I don't remember him claiming they were escalating.   I think modest increases from a very, very low base was the basis of the discussion.  Or does memory fail me?

 The lenders (mainly Caja's) who were involved in sub-prime lending have 180 billion euros of bad real estate assets - i cannot see any meaningful rise taking place until this is liquidated.

But i look forward to read the latest news from Georgia if there is any sign of life somewhere in Spain.

 So would I, I can't think of any place in Spain that is on the rise at the moment apart from the queue at INEM.

Would be very interested to know where property prices are rising....

i read somewhere yesterday that if spain is going to follow usa and uk like it normally does we could see another 30% drop of house prices before it starts to level out.

Although average prices may drop and drop forever, on an individual level, if someone has a fantastic property to sell and isn't desperate, they won't drop their price by 15% just because that is the average across the board.  Maybe the reduction in the value/asking price for 'undesirable' properties is distorting the picture?  This has always been the case in the property market - generalising across Spain and across all property prices doesn't give a detailed picture of the property market.

that makes a lot of sense actually

thanks for explaining it like that

Agreed Eggcup -  but the banks are only giving mortgages for properties that are held by them - so a sale is unlikely unless they are cash buyers - and who will bid up prices in this market?

Mortgage defaults for March-June 2012 was 19.1 Billion Euro.

350,000 court orders for eviction following foreclosures since Jan. 1, 2008

The way i see it - the Spanish mortgage market will remain paralysed until the banks sort out their balance sheets - and that means lots more nationalisation of spanish banks to join the likes of Bankia, Nova Caixa Galicia, Catalunya Caixa, and Banco de Valencia.

Get your cash out of these banks as they are insolvent.

Quite a few properties have been sold on our urbanization recently, the French are taking the lead apparantly.

Interesting point, Poppyseed.  Many French love Spain and stacks of them come on holiday to Spain in August especially.  We always talk about Brits in Spain (for that is what we are) but it would be interesting to know the statistics on French buying and renting for holidays in Spain.  When we sold a cortijo a few years ago it was to a Dutch person... I don't think there are so many of them around in Spain - they like France! The grass is always greener.

"But i look forward to read the latest news from Georgia if there is any sign of life somewhere in Spain"

He recently outlined an example where prices had increased about 9%  in one of his complexes in Algorfa - albeit from a low base  (55,000 to 59,990 if I recall).  Therefore, perhaps that area is bucking the general downward trend.

Harry

Harry, I think the point was more that people will buy if the price is low enough.   It is not an upward trend - maybe just a bit of competition among very low priced properties.         Though he did rather pointedly say that I live in the back of beyond in Almeria and house prices will be the last to go up.   Luckily I love living in the back of beyond, and I am all for knocking down the rubbish here. 

 Harry, thanks for clarifying,

A quick scan of properties on kyero.com for Algorfa shows many properties in this price range ..

was 60,000 now 40,000

Bank owned...  40.000

Bank repossession.. 40.000

I expect if there is a particularly nice property it may buck the trend, but i think there is no active "market" in Algorfa so to speak.

 i am just recovering from 3 sweeks in florida and thought i would pop in to see if anything exciting had happened.....

i cant really be bothered to comment due to jet lag at the moment but its interesting to read the expert comments.

I am a bit dissapointed to hear that there is no active market in Algorfa as i have my office there and i was looking forward to going back to the states next year...maybe i will have to rethink that one?!

Hi Moncapitan,

Agree that individual sales may occasionally buck the trend - sometimes due to buyers perhaps not being properly informed. I think we may also concur this does not imply the market is stabilising/rising in Algorfa against the general down trend in the rest of Spain !!! Always important to be objective presenting data & discard any self interest.

Roly - great to hear you are enjoying the good life in "back of beyond".

Cheers,

Harry

I would say the only market for buyers is those that are wishing to retire in Spain - the market for 2nd holiday homes or investments has imploded.

and the desire to buy instead of rent is not so attractive when you consider the monthly service charges and future tax increases.

if anybody has any positive data to balance this or news from the coal face, please post.

 market for 2nd homes in my office is approximately 70% of all sales.

4 sales whilst i was in Florida and 2 final clients this week before we close for 2 weeks.....overall summary for this year is that pleasantly suprised and i would settle for next year to be the same.

Met with a builder yesterday who is starting a new development that i want to sell after they sold out completely this year,somebody must be buying and they are not cheap.

Source; Coal Face.

Harry,

Why do you constantly ask for my input and then tell people to be wary of self interest?boredom maybe??