House Prices
According to official figures from Spain’s Housing Ministry, house prices overall rose 4.8% throughout the country for 2007/8.
But because the country is diverse, figures vary widely depending on the area.
For example Granada increase is 8.5%, whereas in the province of Analucia the increase is just under 5%.
The Government states that the property market is gliding toward a soft landing in which prices converge with the general inflation rate.
This will allow house prices to return to normal levels and increase at a more sustainable rate over several years.

Construction
One of Spain’s major banks (BBVA) believes that planning permissions will be down 175,000 to 500,000 in the year 2008, which in time could lead to a shortfall of new properties being built.

Spain’s construction output fell by 3.9%, compared to the European average of .2%. Portugal fell to -2.8% and Slovenia -2.6%, this means that the construction industry generally in Spain is in for a stormy time in the next few years, which will in turn lead to a shortage of new property.

Estate Agents
According to the Spanish daily newspaper “El Pais”, over 40,000 of the registered Estate Agents in Spain closed last year, this being over half of all the Agents registered in the Country.
Most of these closures were of small or “fly by night” type operations who were trying to
Take advantage of the boom times, though it is reckoned that this adjustment will take
Several more months until it all settles down, leaving the well established and more
Credible operators still in place.