House sales suffer their second biggest fall to date with a drop of 37.5% in February

According to figures published by the Spanish National Institute for Statistics (INE) house sales for February 2009 suffered their second biggest fall ever recorded with a drop of 37.5%. During the month of February 34.669 transactions were recorded which is the second lowest figure on record. Moreover, these figures show that house sales are continuing their downward spiral at a fast pace.

Following an end of year overall fall of 26% recorded at the close of 2008 the number of house sales in January quickly dispelled any optimism in the property market. The figures for January 2009 saw the biggest fall in house sales ever recorded with a drop of 38.6%, an identical figure to that recorded in March 2008.

Again the biggest fall in house sales has been recorded for ‘used’ houses with a drop in sales of 45.2% (15,642 transactions). The fall in new housing was significantly lower at 29.

3% (19,027 transactions). Out of all house sales recorded for February 2009 private house sales fell by 40% (30,822 transactions ) whereas subsidised housing sales fell by just 6.6% (3,847 transactions).