Balearic homes are Spain´s fourth most expensive

THE price of housing on the open market in the Balearics has risen by 14.53 percent over the past year to reach 2'022.93 euros per square metre, placing the Islands as the country's fourth most expensive region for buying a place to live. the central government ministry for Housing reported yesterday that in the first nine months of the year, the cost of buying a home has risen in the Balearics by 14.20 percent, a rise higher than the national average. Comparing the third quarter of 2004 with the second, prices increased in the Islands by 3.17 percent, slightly under the average for the rest of the country. The ministry reported that Murcia, Catalonia and Andalucia are the regions where the average price of a home has increased the most over the last year, with rises of 25.3 percent in the first case and over 20 percent in the other two regions. Bearing out these figures in the third quarter of 2004, the average price of a square metre of free market housing stood at 1'671.7 euros which means a rise of 17.18 percent over and above the same quarter of the previous year. Apart from Murcia, Catalonia and Andalucia, the price hikes were at their most noticeable in Valencia (19.9%), Madrid (18.3%) and Castilla-La Mancha (17.5%), all of them above the national average. The lowest increases, however, were registered in Asturias (1.3%), Navarra (7.6%), Canarias (8.4%) and La Rioja (8.8%).