Torrevieja a top 10 for property market

TORREVIEJA has established itself as one of the top 10 markets for buying and selling properties in the country despite the recession, according to Spanish daily Diario Informacion.

Only large cities including Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Murcia, Zaragoza and Malaga outnumbered real estate transactions in the first quarter of 2011, according to a study by the National Statistics Institute.

Torrevieja is the second top city that is not a regional capital, beaten only by Torrejon de Ardoz in the Madrid Region.

In the Valencian Region in the first three months of the year more homes were sold in Torrevieja than in the Alicante, Castellón, Elche, Benidorm and Orihuela, and it was only surpassed by the city of Valencia.

Of the 672 transactions in the first three months of the year in Torrevieja, nearly 600 were properties that had been built in the past three decades.

Despite the closure of dozens of agencies since the economic crisis began in 2008, real estate remains a major economic activity in the city.

However, Torrevieja has not completely escaped the economic crisis in the property sector.

During the greatest expansion period between 2004 and 2006 there were close to 2,400 real estate transactions per quarter.

By mid 2007 there were more than 1,000 transactions each quarter, but by the first quarter of 2009 only 529 properties were sold.

By Nicole Hallett
nicole@euroweeklynews.com