The House Price Index published by the Property Registrars using the Case Shiller model reveals that residential property prices in Spain rose 1.15% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.
That is the first time this index has edged clearly into positive territory since the Spanish housing bubble burst, as illustrated by the chart above.
On a quarterly basis prices were basically stable, with a decline of just 0.08% between June and September.
The peak to present fall in house prices is 32.4% according the Registrars’ figures.
“These figures paint a picture of stable house prices,” explains the press release from the Registrars.
Transactions Rise
“The registered number of homes sold also shows a favourable evolution,” say the Registrars, revealing that transactions increased 1.4% to 79,561 sales in the third quarter compared to the second. The market bottomed out with 72,560 sales in Q4 2013.
The improvement was driven by resale properties with 52,127 sales, practically double those of new builds (27,434). Resale transactions were up 4,268 on Q2, meaning a quarterly rise of 8.92%, against a fall of 10.36% in new builds.
Cummulative sales over 12 months were 313,607, up by 2,743 on Q2 when a record low was reached (310,864).
Andalucia was the autonomous regions with the most sales, 16,006 transactions, followed by the Valencian Community (12,189), Catalonia (11,975) and Madrid (10,883).
Mortgage Defaults Decline
According to the report on Mortgage Default, the number of bank demands notifying the start of repossession proceedings in Q3 was 13,421, a decrease of 5,500 compared with Q2 (18,921), dropping the quarterly figure by 29.07 per cent.
64.25 per cent of bank repossession demands were issued to individuals with the remainder going to companies. As regards nationality, 10.03 per cent of demands went to foreigners and 89.97 per cent to Spaniards. The autonomous regions with the most repossession demands were Andalucia (3,176), Catalonia (2,928) and the Valencian Community (2,113).
Stephen says:
You have to laugh don’t you. Who are they trying to kid.
drummerboy says:
What a negative person you are Stephen. Little by Little is the name of the game. It’s probably the cheaper properties that are selling, so with those out of the way the market will start to get back to normal. You sound like a true Brit, all Doom and Gloom.
(Is your property on the market?)
Single Dad says:
Good news at last. It’s been a long time coming.
Andy says:
Think this is just an initial response from buyers who have been holding off, awaiting the market to
hit rock bottom & feel it has.
I live in kent where property prices are supposed to be going through the roof but we have still had to take a sizeable drop on the valuation to sell.
I think the term dead cat bounce, is more like the truth any significant rises are still a few years off
assuming we don’t drop back into recession.
Stephen says:
If my Spanish is correct I think this says prices are still falling?
http://www.diariosur.es/economia/vivienda/201412/01/vivienda-segunda-mano-rebaja-20141201102700-rc.html
Mark Stücklin says:
Average house prices (new and resale) rose 1.15% YOY in Q3 according to the Registrars (read the article). You link to an index for resales YOY November published by one of the smaller portals. There are good reasons why they are not the same. Personally I would expect average prices to still be falling.
Andy says:
Stephen you are correct, just translated it.
But as we know the people who wan’t prices to rise are talking it up.
Believe me i have two properties in Andalusia & i pretty much can’t give them
away.
sooty says:
Well if prices have risen my Front Line Golf Penthouse [advertised in the Property section] must be an absolute Give away, as I am asking just half what it cost me 6 years ago.