Spanish property news - Planning approvals down 74% in Alicante

After a decade of increasing development building activity decreased more in Alicante than in any other region in Spain, where the average fall was 60%.

There were 8,103 planning approvals in 2008, down from 31,655 in 2007,48,133 in 2006 and 52,737 in 2004.

In the last quarter of 2008 there were just 960 planning approvals, compared to a quarterly average of 13,000 in 2004.

Antonio Morata, president of the college told the Spanish press “So far the only thing we know for sure is that this fall is without precedent, and although activity started to decline in 2004, nobody expected this collapse.“

According to Morata, the only building activity still going is people building their own homes. There are an estimated 40,000 new homes on the market in Alicante Province, which helps to explain why developers have now stopped building and are currently reducing prices on new key-ready property in the Costa Blanca.