Property sales drop by 18.5% in the Canaries

Existing home sales in the Canary Islands has fallen by 18.5% in the first quarter of 2001 compared with sales over the same period of 2010, according to data released today by the Ministry of Development. In the whole of Spain, home sales fell by 30.4% in the first quarter, standing at 74,540 operations, according to the same sources. The year began with a sharp decline after increases in late 2010, before the demise of the tax credit for purchase of residence for income of people exceeding €24,000 euros. In the fourth quarter of 2010 alone there were 150,268 property transactions, nearly double that of the first three months of 2011.

Property transactions also fell in other regions: Andalucia (-19.5%), Aragón (-43.5%), Asturias (-30.7%), Baleares (-23.1%), Cantabria (-33%), Castilla y León (-43%), Galicia (-37.5%), Castilla-La Mancha (-36%) and Cataluña (-32%).

The only positive figure from the statistics was the fact that during the first quarter of 2011, property purchased by foreign residents in Spain increased by 3.4%.