Spain’s mortgage market continues to struggle

The beleaguered Spanish mortgage market has continued to take a battering this week after the Spanish Housing Association announced that the number of mortgage transactions has continued to fall.

The number of house transactions in August fell by 36 percent compared to last year, which signalled that the situation is getting worse.

Spain’s initial housing boom a decade ago meant that the economy was able to grow at the fastest rate in the euro zone. However in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the housing collapse that has ensued has taken the property market and the economy down too.

As a result of its sudden demise, unemployment is now at a European-Union high of 11.3 percent in this quarter with the fear that Spain could now be the latest country that is deemed to be in recession.

This has also caused a stir back in Britain as the average house price in Catalonia has fallen by 45%, calling all holidaymakers to seize a quick bargain in the Costa Del Sol.

The UK, however, is in a far more positive situation as mortgage approvals are up slightly to 33,000 between August and September, which is 1,000 over the projected figure.

Net lending secured on property has also increased dramatically as it rose to 2.2 billion from 0.8 billion in August.

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