There are 200,000 properties still on the market making it difficult for anyone who wants to or needs to sell their house. To add to the problem of those who just want to move, the economic crisis has forced many owners of holiday homes to consider their second home as a luxury they can no longer afford.
According to data released by the Ministry for Housing, the Valencian Community is the second Spanish region with the greatest volume of “holiday homes”, with a total of 1.2 million apartments and villas. Of these, 569,729 are located in Alicante, 476,755 in the province of Valencia and 235,783 in Castellon.
Whilst the sale of new houses has continued to fall since 2007, the resale market has begun to show signs of improvement. According to the Director of the Ministry, Beatriz Corredor, during a two year period, the sale of new properties fell by 52% in the region, from 57,833 houses in 2007 to only 27,514 in 2009. Conversely, the resale market which had crashed from 60,628 sales in 2007 to only 28,779 in 2008 has finally begun to recover, reaching 30,168 during last year.
This is not all good news though because in a bid to sell, prices of houses have dropped to rock bottom. The average value of a resale property in the region has gone down from 152,226 to 138,481 Euros during the last two years.
The deflated prices of re-sales have made it even harder for promoters to shift new builds. Historically, foreign investors have been the ones who purchase holiday homes in the Valencian Community, but this trend has also ceased during the past three years. In 2007, 16,202 houses were bought by foreigners, by 2008 that number had dropped to 5,243 and to 4,647 last year.
So it is still good news if you are buying but not so good if you are trying to sell.
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