Value of Spanish homes drops 15.2pc as recession takes a toll
EURO area house prices sunk over the 12 months to the third quarter last year, as the bloc’s economic travails took their toll.
Prices were down 2.5 per cent between July and September, Eurostat revealed yesterday, compared to the same period a year before.
In the wider EU, prices were down 1.9 per cent over the same period, as some of its non-Eurozone members escaped the effects of the currency bloc’s sovereign debt crisis.
Worst hit was the Eurozone’s beleaguered fourth-biggest economy, Spain, where house prices plummeted 15.2 per cent over the year.
Ireland and the Netherlands also suffered corrections close to double figures.
By contrast, Estonia was enjoying a house price boom, with values climbing some 8.4 per cent over the year.
After Luxembourg, where prices grew 7.1 per cent in the year to the third quarter 2012, the next fastest growth was in Finland – 2.1 per cent – and in the UK and Belgium – 1.8 per cent.