PROPERTY
Further slight optimism in house market ALTHOUGH they are waiting for the final drop in prices to happen, more and more people are beginning to look into the housing market with a view to buying. According to Spanish real estate network Look & Find, 35 per cent of the population think that the time is not yet right for buying a house or flat. Another 26 per cent believe that they should wait and see how the market develops. Sales of ‘second hand’ homes have risen by 2.2 per cent year on year while sales of new homes has gone down by 6.8 per cent. The Look & Find online survey also revealed that many people see 2014 as the year bargains are going to be found in all areas of the housing market, this is attributed to the constant fall of prices over the last few years. The survey also revealed that housing prices had gone down an average of 36 per cent since the beginning of the crash in 2006; in the last few years the drop has not been so steep.
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3 - 9 April 2014 / Costa del Sol
Rentals up nearly 50 per cent in one year RENTING is beating buying by a long shot in the Spanish market, especially in the larger cities. Last year 195,264 occupation contracts were signed; of these 77 per cent were for rentals and only 22 per cent for purchases, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). This ratio is the complete opposite of the pre-crisis situation when only 17 per cent of contracts were for rentals. As demand for rentals has gone up, prices have come down. In Barcelona the average price of a rental property, of 70 square metres, is €681,6 this is 5.4 per cent less than in 2013. For the second year in a row no Spanish city has an average rental price of over €1,000. The rental situation in the Catalan capital proves that the housing market is responding to the demands made on it and that prices can go down as well as up. This rise in rentals is attributed to the
banking restrictions on mortgages and the difficulty that owners are having in selling their properties.
RENTING: Market is improving.
EWN
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