Figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute have found that Spanish rents rose by 0.7% in April, compared to April 2011.
Rents increased by the highest amount in Catalonia, 1.4 per cent, followed by Asturias and the Basque Country, where rates jumped by 1.2 per cent. Rents rose by 1.1 per cent in Castilla y Leon and 1 per cent in Galicia. Only two areas - Murcia and La Rioja – saw rental values fall, by 1.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.
Increases of less than 1% occurred in Andalusia (0.8%), Melilla (0.7%), Ceuta (0.7%), the Canary Islands (0.6%), Extremadura (0.5%), Castilla-La Mancha (0.5%), Cantabria (0.4%), Aragon (0.4%), the Balearic Islands (0.4%), and Madrid (0.2%).
Rents have started to rise as a result of the extremely high demand for Spanish rental property, as many Spaniards find themselves unable to afford to purchase property, even despite falling prices.
Many experts are now predicting that the Spanish property market is starting to recover, with the latest Real Estate Pulsometer prepared by the Corporate Practice Institute (IPE) predicting that the 'stock' of unsold homes in Spain will be reduced by 23.6% in 2012, by up to 611,250 homes, and they anticipate that new construction activity will begin to recover in 2013.
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