Spain house price slide quickens in first quarter

The fall in Spanish house prices gathered pace slightly in the first quarter of this year, official data showed on Monday.

Data from the infrastructure ministry showed house prices fell by 4.6 percent in the first quarter on an annual basis after falling by 3.5 percent in the last quarter of the year.

The fall was the sharpest since a 6.2 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2009 and prices have now fallen for two-and-a- half years.

Spain's housing sector worries investors because some of the country's highly-indebted savings banks still have large portfolios of property that they may have to sell off at bargain prices, hurting their outlook even further.

Source: FOREXPROS.com