House prices in the free sector continue their downward trend, falling by over 6€ during the first quarter of 2013 when compared to the previous quarter. It is the largest decline since 2007, the first year that the National Statistics Institute (INE) began monitoring such statistics.
Prices of second-hand houses was down by 6.8% over the fourth quarter of 2012, while for new housing the decline was 6.5%.
It is now 20 consecutive quarters in which house prices have registered negative annual rates. The housing prices began to fall in the second quarter of 2008 (-0.3%) and since then the trend has not been reversed.