The Spanish property market saw an increase in residential property sales of +16% in February 2010 compared to February 2009, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

There were 35,720 home sales in February 2010, of which 21,368 of them were newly built and 19,665 being re-sales. There was a +79% increase in transactions from just two regions. Catalonia saw a +43% rise and Madrid saw an increase of +36%, however the market continued to shrink or stagnate in many coastal areas popular with foreign buyers.

Malaga and Alicante saw year-on-year increases of +3% and +3.8% respectively and Andalucia saw a +7% rise. Granada and Cadiz were both up +14% and Valencia saw +23% growth.

Since the peaks of December 2007, average prices are down -16.2% nationally, -22.5% on the Mediterranean coast, and -13.6% in the Canaries and the Balearics.

Analysts predict that the market has touched bottom and is starting to recover after two years of decline, however the improvement is patchy and volumes are still -47% below what they were in 2007.