The snakes and ladders of buying property in Valencia.

The ups and downs of sales and purchase of property in and around Valencia have sent the average mortal into a quandary, not to mention the speculators who, with dollar signs in their eyes rushed in to buy as much as they could in those heady days of the gold rush.

Last week Standard and Poor (quite apt for some!) informed us that 8% of mortgages in Spain are now in negative equity based on drops of 20%. If the falls would continue and would reach a figure of 30%-35% then the negative equity would be 19,6%- 28,2%.

Also last week, the European Commission said that Spanish properties are still 17% over valued (this is on top of the European average of 3%). This leaves Spain in 2nd position – the 1st being Ireland at a whopping 37%!.

But let us now leave the frightening scene of the snake pit into which we have descended, and take a few steps up the ladder. Today, the National Institute of Statistics informed us that for the 8th consecutive month there is an increase in property sales. This increase amounts to 30% on sales of August 2009. The total property sales in August 2010 were 43.817 which is not bad. Although, when we think back to the golden days, the average sales for August were circa 80.000. Which just goes to show that we still have a long ladder to climb.