2009 was worst year on record for Spanish property market

2009 was reported as being one of the worst years on record for the Spanish property market.

Year-on-year property sales plummeted 27% to 372,000 according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Compared to the last year of the boom, 2007, transactions were down by 48%.

However, sales of resale properties decreased at a much slower rate than new build sales in 2009 which is the opposite of what was initially expected. The reason could have been due to banks offering discounted rates for any new build property on their books in order to bring much-needed cash flow.

Interestingly, in another report issued today, the month of January was shown as being the first month since December 2007 to show an increase in the cost of resale properties.