Spanish Property Market Continues Recovery

According to the latest set of data, the slow recovery in the Spanish property market continued in March.

According to the Spanish statistics office, the INE, sales of Spanish property were up 9% this March compared to last March. This is an increase of only half that seen in February (18.7%) but does point to a continued increase in sales of Spanish property.

Foreigners are thought to be behind a substantial part of the recovery, with agents and developers in the Marbella property market reporting increases of 150% over last year in sales to foreigners.

That said -- foreigners and probably Spaniards as well -- are only buying property that is discounted, either the price represents a 20% drop on the peak, or the developer has marked the prices down by 20-40%, either way the reduction is apparently necessary as an aide to buyer confidence; it makes them feel safer about the prospect of losing money on their purchase in the short-term.

Never the less, a recovery perceived is a recovery received, and confidence breeds confidence. The difficult thing now is finding a way out of the discounts and back to normalcy. Many believe that the best way to do this is to sell off the remaining stocks at the current discounts, and then introduce increases in the next wave of stocks.

Clearing the stock could be the hard part. Despite the increase in activity there are still thousands of properties on the market in Spain, and the increases are mainly in prime areas. In truth we are still looking at plenty of bargains in the Spanish property market for at least another year.

From: Property Abroad