The Costa Azahar, or ‘Orange Blossom Coast’, in the Valencian province of Castellon, wins the dubious prize of hosting the biggest unsold inventory of new properties per head of population (glut ratio), according to new figures from the Ministry of Housing, reported in the Spanish daily El Pais.

Marina D’Or beefs up the ratio in Castellón

Thanks largely to a massive new development called Marina D’Or, which the article in El Pais describes as a ‘monstruo urbanístico’, or town planning monstrosity, the province of Castellon had 30 unsold new properties per 1,000 provincial residents at the end of 2008, compared to a Spanish average of 13.3 properties per 1,000 of population. These glut ratios are bound to have deteriorated further in the last 6 months.

The Costa Azahar’s property glut leapt from 23 per 1,000 at the start of 2008, to 30/1,000 at the end of the year, a rise of 30% in 2008, the year the Spanish property market crashed.

Generally speaking, the regions with the worst gluts are located on the coast or in dormitory towns around Madrid. On the coast, Almeria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Alicante all have new home ‘glut ratios’ of more than 20/1,000.

“Mr.Drain’s” Seseña does it for Toledo

After Castellon, the worst glut is to be found in Toledo (Castilla La Mancha), thanks to a massive new development in Seseña, built by El Pocero, or Mr. Drains, as a new dormitory town within commuting distance of Madrid. Many of the homes in Seseña have now been repossessed by banks, and Mr. Drains has gone off to build homes in Equatorial Guinea, one of the most forsaken and corrupt countries in Africa.

The Spanish regions with the healthiest property markets in terms of glut ratios of less than 5/1,000 include Caceres (Extremadura), and Cantabria, on the North coast of Spain. The lack of a serious housing overhang in these regions means they should be the first to recover.