Property prices soar in Balearics

Proof that the property boom is continuing comes from a report by Tinsa, the company which evaluates property. Its latest report shows that the cost of housing has shot up by 23 per cent in the Balearics over the past 12 months (24 per cent in Palma), the biggest increase in the country. This compares with an average increase of 14 per cent in the rest of the country, taking figures from March 31 1999 to March 31 2001, and referring to second hand home. The cost of new housing went up by 11 per cent, the report said. At March 31 this year, a new home cost an average of 157'400 pesetas per square metre (201'200 pesetas in the regional capital and 133'700 pesetas in the rest of the region). As to second hand homes, the price at the end of March was 124'500 pesetas per square metre (162'700 pesetas in the regional capital and 104'900 pesetas elsewhere). The cost of second homes, a rising fad in the Balearics, has gone up by four per cent for a new construction (160'000 pesetas per square metre) and nine per cent for an old one (137'700 pesetas). Other regions where new property prices have increased by a fifth over the past year include Las Palmas in the Canary Islands (28 per cent), Murcia (27 per cent), Logroño (also 27 per cent), Zaragoza (25 per cent), Valladolid (22 per cent), Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Huelva (21 per cent) and Seville, Oviedo, Segovia and Tarragona (20 per cent).