The official index of Spanish property prices, published quarterly by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), suggests that Spanish property prices may have bottomed out.
Average Spanish property prices fell by 7% over 12 months to the end of September, a slight improvement on the 7.7% recorded at the end of June.
The chart above shows how the turnaround is being driven by a significant improvement in the trend for resale property prices, which bottomed out in the second quarter. New build prices, on the other hand, continue to fall at an increasing rate, down by 5.6% in the period.
House market analysts expect new build price falls to accelerate this year, reports the Spanish daily El Pais.
Prices are falling the most in regions where they rose the most during the boom, namely Catalonia (-11.2%), Madrid (-11%), and The Balearics (-9.2%).
But it is always worth pointing out that the official index is so detached from reality it is close to meaningless.
Take the index for Murcia, for example. According to the INE, property prices in Murcia only fell by 1% over 12 months to the end of September having bottomed out in the second quarter after falling just 1.6% in the first. That is farfetched, to put it mildly.
