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You are here: Home Family & Kids Partners Fewer divorces as financial crisis deepens

10/11/2008Fewer divorces as financial crisis deepens

Estranged couples turn reluctant flatmates as many struggle to sell their houses at a reasonable price.

MADRID - People may marry for love, but divorce is about money, as Spain's deepening economic crisis is making clear.

This year's slowdown and the credit crunch affecting banks are cutting divorce rates, said Madrid divorce lawyer Antonio Prada.

Divorce rates are estimated to be down 30 percent so far.

Sitting alone by Hoong-Wei-Long - Flickr
"It has become extremely difficult for couples wanting to divorce to sell their home at a reasonable price, and the crisis is also making it harder to maintain two separate households," Prada told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

As a result, couples which no longer have anything to say to each other stay under the same roof, developing what Prada termed as "new forms of living together".

Divorce rates went into a clear decline earlier in 2007, when the meltdown of Spain's key property sector and the international economic conjuncture put an abrupt end to more than a decade of uninterrupted growth.

Growth has now plunged from 3.8 percent in 2007 to close to zero, and unemployment has soared past 10 percent. Prices of used housing dropped by more than 10 percent in the first nine months of this year, according to the property valuation company Tinsa.

Although the government has plans to inject up to EUR 150 billion into the financial system to shore up banks, the deepening economic crisis could discourage divorces further, said analysts.

"Couples which intended to divorce may even stay together permanently," Prada said.

"The economic crisis would thus help to preserve marriages" in cases where the partners have at least friendly relations, he added.

Edward Hopper "Room in New York" 
However, there are couples who cannot stand the sight of each other and are resorting to "internet divorces" based on standard contracts supplied by law firms charging low fees.

This does not necessarily lead to happier times for those involved though.

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