23/07/2014
The fall in property prices is slowing down considerably, but nobody should be fooled into thinking that the difficulties in the market have been overcome: prices are still going down, and the latest report issued by property valuation firm TInsa concludes that in Alicante and the region of Valencia as a whole they are now at their lowest level ever.
In late 2007 the average property price in the province of Alicante was 2,300 euros per square metre, but this has now fallen by 46.1% to just 1,240 euros after dropping by another 4% in the twelve months ended 30th June this year.
In the provinces of Valencia and Castellón the prices per square metre now stand at 1,479€ and 1,455€ respectively, making Alicante by far the cheapest of the three provinces in the Comunitat. In addition, Tinsa report that the drop over the same last twelve months has been 10.5% in Castellón and 8.8% in Valencia, which may be taken as indicating that stability is more imminent in the southernmost of the three provinces.
This relative improvement in Alicante has been noted various times over recent months, and there are even signs that the dormant construction sector is beginning to reawaken as demand begins to match supply in the coastal areas of the province. At the same time low interest rates and a slight easing of the credit crunch are making purchases more accessible to non-cash buyers while banks continue to offload excess real estate assets at knock-down prices, and in consequence the number of building licences applied for was 57.1% higher in 2013 than in 2012, with a further increase of 29% being noted in the first half of 2014.
In the country as a whole, meanwhile, prices are reported by Tinsa to have fallen by just 3.9% in the twelve months to 30th June 2014, the least significant fall for a long time, and increases were even recorded in the northern regions of Extremadura (2.8%) and Galicia (0.1%). At the other end of the scale, the sharpest falls were in Madrid (9.9%) and La Rioja (8.2%), while in the Comunitat Valenciana the average price was 7.6% down on the figures from 30th June 2013.
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