News on the Spanish property market

April 2009 - Property Slump Continues

It is predicted by the president of G14, a confederation of principal estate agents in Spain, that the number of new homes builders will start this year will be no more than 150,000. That represents a dramatic fall from the 700,000 homes which were started annually during the boom period. However, it will take some time for equilibrium between supply and demand to be restored. The difficulty in borrowing money from banks combined with fear of job loss and a general feeling of insecurity means that very few properties are selling at present and there is a huge catalogue of properties available for purchase. A total of 558,500 thousand homes were sold in 2008 and while this sounds like quite a buoyant figure, the number is nearly 29% down on the 2007 figure.