Buyers strike a hard bargain

Information on bargaining and offers made for homes provided on the website also revealed that in September this year, there were 32 bids for every 1'000 properties being offered for sale.

Research showed that the discount on the asking price being requested by home buyers in the Balearics was greater last month than in bargaining across the country as a whole, which averaged out at 21.7 percent.

But it would seem that there are potential home buyers who are even more ambitious in other regions of the country than the bargain hunters in the Balearics.

The website idealista.com made an analysis of the widest distance between the asking price and knocked-down offer in different provinces (as opposed to regions) of the country. According to the findings, it appears that home hunters in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands were pushing for discounts in the region of a third of the asking prices. Bargainers sought to bring down the cost of a home by an average of 28.7 percent. Next down the website list for the greatest difference between asking and offer prices came Lleida in Catalonia (27.5 percent), Castellón (27.1%) and Girona (26.8%).

The province of Spain where buyers and sellers were most in agreement over the price of a home was in Melilla - the Spanish city in North Africa - where the average discount asked stood at 17 percent last month. Melilla was followed by Alava (18.9%), Guipúzcoa (19.3%) and Seville (19.7%).

The analysts also looked at the difference between asking and offer prices according to data collected in regional capitals. They found that the widest average last month was registered at 26.7 percent in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, more than the 26.6 percent researched in Cáceres. Buyers and sellers proved to have the least differences in Ciudad Real and Orense where discounts requested averaged out at 14 and 16.6 percent respectively.

The website's surveys confirmed the seasonal nature of property transactions given that in January this year, 31'701 bargain offers were made for houses on sale on idealista.com whilst in September at the end of the summer, there were just 29'344 bids. The month which proved to have the lowest level of activity was June, when only 23'320 offers were made.

In terms of provinces of Spain where bargaining over property was at its most intense in September, Madrid came out top of the list with 156 bids being made for every 1'000 properties up for sale. Madrid was followed by Zaragoza where 112 bids were made, Melilla (97), Alava (84) and Barcelona (76).

Least demand was shown in Orense (15 bids for every 1'000 properties and Zamora (18 for every 1'000).