Spain home prices stage rebound

Spanish home prices increased in the second quarter for the first time since 2008, adding to signs that the property market is stabilising.

Prices rose 0.8 per cent, the first gain since the first quarter of 2008, data compiled by the National Statistics Institute showed. They were up 1.7 per cent from the previous quarter.

Two years since applying for a European Union rescue, Spain has become one of the fastest-growing euro-zone economies as record unemployment subsided, exports surged and investment rebounded.

Spain's General Council of Registrars said earlier this month that prices edged up 0.97 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier as 78,500 properties changed hands. It estimates prices have fallen 32 per cent from the peak and are now at levels seen in 2003.

Prices rose year on year in all but one of the country's 18 regions, with the highest growth recorded in Murcia and Valencia, the statistics institute said.