The sale of used housing falls by 43%

The slump in the sale of used housing in Spain has worsened over the last few months with sales dropping by 2.7 points to 43% in October 2008. In contrast the fall in the sale of new housing was just 8.7% which is an improvement on the previous figure of 10.8%. Nevertheless, according to figures published by the National Institute for Statistics, the property market has fallen in overall terms by 28% since January last year with 42,883 operations less than a year ago. These figures include operations for VPO properties (state subsidised housing).

The sharp fall in sales is partly due to the restrictions on lending by the banks from the end of 2007 onwards. The rise in unemployment figures has also added to the fall in property sales. The sale of properties fell under the 40,000 figure in January 2007 at just 39,201 sales which is one of the lowest figures ever recorded.

Nevertheless, the figures for VPO housing are even worse.

Specifically in the figures for October showed that sales in this sector fell from 13 to 30% compared to the fall in private housing sales to 27%. However, the fall in the sale of VPO housing has less impact on the overall market given that it only accounts for 8.5% of the total operations.