House prices in Catalonia plummeted by 14.6% in the first quarter of 2012

Madrid (ACN).- House prices in Catalonia continue to drop. At the end of the first quarter of 2012, they had fallen by 14.6%, according to the Spanish Institute for Statistics (INE). The sale price of flats and houses in Catalonia have been decreasing for 17 consecutive quarters and last quarter’s 14.6% drop was the highest since the sector crises started in 2008. For the whole of Spain, housing prices dropped by 11.8%, which is also the highest decrease since this data began to be collected by the INE in 2007. Second-hand housing prices have faired slightly better, but have still dropped by 13.6%.

Sale prices of new-construction housing in Catalonia had dropped by 18% at the end of March, compared to 12 months earlier. The fall registered at the end of the last quarter of 2011 was 13.3%, almost double the fall registered at the end of September 2011. This confirms the trend that in the last quarters, new-construction housing prices drop at a more severe pace. In fact, never before had an 18% drop been registered, as in 2009, when the financial crisis was hitting hard the Spanish real state bubble, there were 10% and 11% decreases.

Second-hand housing prices resist better, but fell by 13.6%

Second-hand housing prices in Catalonia improved in relation to the last quarter of 2011, when they decreased by 14.8% in relation to the end of 2010. However, they continued to significantly fall, as they dropped by 13.6% at the end of March 2012, compared to one year ago. Second-hand housing prices  in Catalonia did not have the exact same behaviour as new-built flats and houses. For instance its worst drop is not in the current year, but in the first term of 2009, when they fell by 16.4%.

In Spain, prices dropped by 11.2%

Housing prices fell by 11.8% in Spain at the end of March compared to one year ago. In Catalonia, second-hand housing prices were those that plummeted the most, falling by 13.7%. New-built housing prices decreased by 11.2%. Housing prices dropped throughout Spain, in all the Autonomous Communities, as they did at the end of 2011.