The Spanish property market is still struggling to recover from a period of almost half a decade spent in the doldrums, according to latest figures. It comes just a few weeks after it was claimed that the number of property investors purchasing in Spain having made the move from overseas was helping to prop up the sector in one of the nations that was hurt worst by the financial downturn across the eurozone from 2008.
The latest figures released by the National Statistics Institute have revealed that the number of homes sold in the nation during November 2013 was a full 16 per cent lower than it was a year ago. This poor month, during which just 22,000 homes were bought across the whole country, marked the second largest year-on-year dip seen in the nation since 2008.
Even when compared to October, the sales figures made for bad reading, with the fall in the space of just a month amounting to 4.1 per cent. This latest wave of bad news comes as it has been reported that property prices fell by nearly eight per cent in 2013. Since 2007, when prices peaked, they have now fallen by as much as 39 per cent to return to levels last seen in 2002.
However, the good news for foreign investors is that they can now get on the market at a lower price level, knowing that the probability of capital gains when the economy improves will be reasonably high. One of the largest negative factors currently seen in Spain is the fact that most can't get access to finance to buy homes. “Credit is still being choked and potential buyers don’t have access to property at its current prices,” said Fernando Encinar, head of studies at property website Idealista. However, this would be something that would change when finances in Spain get stronger, helping push demand, sales and prices higher in tandem.
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