Official data shows floor at end-2009 after two years of declining sales and prices
SPAIN’S property sector slide showed signs that it was nearing a floor at the end of 2009 after two years of steep declines in both sales and prices, official data showed yesterday.
The number of houses sold in Spain rose 5.3 per cent in November from a month earlier while house prices fell at the lowest annual rate in the fourth quarter since the same period a year earlier.
Spain’s decade-long economic boom, fuelled by cheap credit and soaring property prices, came to an abrupt end last year after the global financial crisis exposed structural weaknesses in the economy that the government is now struggling to correct.
House prices fell 6.2 per cent year on year in the fourth quarter of last year, the Housing Ministry said, compared with a fall of 2.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a record drop of 8.2 per cent in the second quarter.
The ministry’s figures are in line with private property surveyor association Tinsa which said on Tuesday that house prices slipped 6.6 per cent in 2009 year on year.
Property prices in Spain have fallen around 14 per cent from their high at the end of 2007 and while the official data showed the drop in value may be turning the corner, economists said that the sector is still highly overvalued. A Reuters survey in October predicted that house prices would fall a further 7.3 per cent in 2010 and 25 per cent from the peak.
Source: Business Times, 16 Jan 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment