16:02
Spanish house prices fell for the twelfth straight quarter in the final three months of 2010, but came close to break-even as the property market struggles to emerge from an extended slump.
In the October to December period prices fell 0.1 percent quarter on quarter, national statistics institute INE said on Tuesday.
That was the smallest drop since quarterly prices began to descend in the fourth quarter of 2007 and much less than the 2.2 percent decline registered in July-September 2010.
However, official data underestimates the weakness of the market and final sale prices, rather than valuation prices used by INE, may have fallen much more sharply, economist at Global Insight Raj Badiani said.
"Despite recent indicators suggesting that the rate of decline in housing activity has been stabilising, the fundamentals point to weak activity across the sector," Badiani said.
"This is a concern for the household economy, given that housing equity constitutes around 90 percent of total household wealth."
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