Spanish property sales dip 27 percent in October

MADRID – Property sales in Spain plummeted 27.7 percent in October on a 12-month basis, official data showed Wednesday, in yet further bad news for the country’s once-booming real estate sector.

There were 42,883 property transactions in October, compared to 59,320 in the same month last year, the National Statistics Institute said.

The total was also down 6.4 percent from September.

Over the first 10 months of the year, property sales dived 28.2 percent.

After a decade-long building frenzy, the market was battered this year by rising interest rates and the international credit crunch.

Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, predicted in December that house prices would fall by about 25 percent in real terms by 2011.

The crash in the property sector has helped push the unemployment rate up to 12.8 percent in October, the highest rate in the European Union.

[AFP / Expatica]