Resale property asking prices keep heading down, as vendors respond to the ongoing buyer strike. But judging by the lack of sales, vendors are still deluding themselves about how much their homes are worth.

Resale asking prices dropped another 1.1pc in August, according to the index published by Idealista.com, a leading Spanish property portal, based on the 160,000 properties listed for sale in its database.

In other words, average asking prices fell from 2,365 €/m2 at the end of July, to 2.339 €/m2 at the end of August.

As always, there were regional variations, with prices falling in 13 autonomies, but rising in 4. Asking prices rose the most in The Balearics (+2.3%), followed by Navarre and The Basque Country (+0.2%), and Andalusia (+0.1%). Prices fell the most in Catalonia (-2.4%), Murcia (-2%), and La Rioja (-1.6%).

The dearest and the cheapest

At least judging by asking prices, i.e. what vendors think their homes are worth, property is dearest in The Basque Country (3,531 €/m2), followed by Madrid (3,261 €/m2) and Catalonia (2,732 €/m2).

At the other end of the scale, property is cheapest in Extremadura (1,388 €/m2), followed by Murcia (1,411 €/m2) and Castile-La Mancha (1,608 €/m2).

Not down enough

But judging by the volume of resales, vendors haven’t dropped their prices enough, the latest fall notwithstanding. Though sales to the end of June this year are 20pc up on last year (latest figures available from the INE), they are 30% down on 2008, and 56% down on 2007. So at these prices, resales are less than half what they were just 3 years ago. Seems to me, average asking prices have further to fall.