Spain’s property industry grew for the first time in three years in January this year, prompting some of the industry’s most respected experts to announce that now might well be the time to buy.
Statistics from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) have revealed that Spain’s property market recorded 34,000 home sales in January 2010, a 1.4% increase on the same period last year. Not a great increase, by any means, but the implications for the future of the market are clear – the bust is over, the market has bottomed out, and recovery has begun.
In relation to the tail end of the boom years in 2007 (when the month of January saw 77,400 sales), the figures are 56% down, yet a first-recorded increase since then is sign for cautious optimism, as outlined by Spanish ‘Property Doctor’ Mark Stucklin: “I have no doubt that this year and next year will turn out to be the best time in this property cycle to buy prime real estate on the Spanish coast. This time last year looked like a disaster for world stock market and look what happened; a year on anyone who bought stocks back then would have made pots of money. It’s the same with property; when it looks like a monumental disaster it might be time to buy (but only if you understand the market and its segments.)”
Nationwide, it has been resales driving the recovery, while it was new build sales that kept the Spanish property market afloat throughout much of 2009. Spain’s larger cities – such as Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid – have reported the strongest improvement so far, with the traditional resort markets of the Costa del Sol a little more sluggish, but expected to pick up as the year progresses.
Source: vivaestates
