Great deals for Cash Buyers in Spain

2008 was a pretty bad year for Spanish property and things look like they are going to get a lot worse before they get better. This is the first time that we have seen year on year price falls in the official index since the market started to slump in the second half of 2007.

Officially, at least, nominal property prices have not fallen since 1993.

Average property prices fell almost everywhere, though prices were still creeping up in the provinces of Sevilla (+3.4%), Cadiz (+3%), Valencia (+0.9%), and Extremadura (+0.1%), if you believe the government’s figures.

Values fell the most in the province of Madrid (-7.6%), followed by Murcia (-5.8%), Tenerife (-5.8%), and Castellon (-5.3%).

Over 10 years, however, Spanish property values are still 215% higher in Andalucía, 211% in Murcia, and 200% in the Balearics.

Property prices on the Spanish Mediterranean coast fell by 14.3% in 2008, according to the latest monthly Spanish house price index published by Tinsa, one of Spain’s leading appraisal companies.

The fall applies to both newly built and resale properties, so this is the first closely-watched index to show big falls for newly built property.

So what do all these statistics mean for potential property buyers in Spain well according to Susana Suspenda, the Marketing and Operations manager for Spanish Hot Properties

“Cash buyers should be getting a great deal in 2009 and its probably the best time to buy property in Spain with buyers moving in this year picking up the best value in distressed property sales and hugely discounted new developments from developers in trouble”.