17 December 2008
Although no official figures have yet been publicly released, the head of research at the Bank of Spain, José Luis Malo de Molina reports that a record number of new homes in Spain came onto the market in 2008. This tops last year's record tally of 641,419 completions, as cited on Spanish property Insight.
Speaking at a conference organised by the developers’ association Asprima last week, Malo de Molina confessed that the Spanish property slump now appears to be far more acute than initially feared, due largely to the global credit crunch and a severe oversupply of homes.
The housing downturn is having a detrimental effect on Spain’s wider economy, with thousands of jobs being lost.
Editorial comment:
Many of those people who purchased a home off-plan will be pleased to see their final product being delivered. However, the last thing the Spanish property market needed is more residential units as the sector is already suffering with a glut of empty homes. There is a very real chance that the Spanish housing slump could last long after other European residential markets have recovered from their respective downturns, due mainly to the oversupply.
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