2008–2014 Spanish real estate crisis

Such indicators would be, mainly, the decline in units sold, the sharp fall in housing prices (more or less pronounced depending on the region) and the increase in the number of developers and construction companies declared bankrupt or in financial difficulties.

Among the conjunctural factors seems to be the mortgage crisis that began in August 2007 in the United States, resulting in a credit contraction, and the continuous increase in the Euribor since the ECB.

This caused an increase in mortgage payments, 98% of which represented variable interest rates in Spain, a fact that could have had an impact on consumption[6] and, in any case, on consumer confidence.

At the end of 2007, the news from the Spanish real estate sector began to describe the symptoms of what could be a crisis: a drop in building permits, pre-sales, sales and mortgages.

During 2009, the slump in sales[16] and prices[17] continued to worsen, which is now openly acknowledged by all those involved as a strong adjustment of the construction market.

[18] As a way of encouraging renting, the Spanish government provided a series of direct rental subsidies, effective since January 2008,[19] and has accelerated tenders to reactivate the sector through public works.

[20] Although it has been suggested by the banks and the construction industry that the government should act directly on the sector to rescue it, going so far as to call for the use of the Social Security reserve and the Pension Fund[21] (since the financial crisis and the real estate crisis appear to be intertwined), the government, through its Minister of Economy, rejected the idea, stating that "the adjustment [of the construction industry] should not be artificially prevented".

[29] The first Spanish financial institution in serious difficulties due to the real estate crisis was Caja Castilla-La Mancha, which was intervened by the Bank of Spain on Sunday, March 29, 2009, with its entire management being dismissed and the bank's deposits being covered by the Deposit Guarantee Fund to cover the lack of liquidity.

The prices of the apartments would fall as they would adjust to real demand and bank balance sheets could be cleaned up".

The CGPJ points out that the figures are misleading, since the same request may involve the auction of several properties, so that "the increase detected may be even more alarming".

In 90% of the cases, the real estate agencies of the creditor banks participate in the auctions and end up being awarded the homes at a bargain price.

The Platform of People Affected by the Mortgage (in Spanish: Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, PAH) indicates that the legal reality "abusive and coercive is framed in a situation of permanent assistance from the State to the banking sector" and that, in case of non-payment, the recovery of the mortgaged property by the bank "automatically entails the cancellation of all debt", as happens in other European countries and in the United States, where, if you cannot pay, you give up the property and the debt is cancelled.

[44] Some communities introduce the deduction for the purchase of new homes in the personal income tax return in the regional brackets in order to help banks, developers and builders in the face of the immense stock that remains empty.

[46] For José Luis Jimeno, real estate expert and president of the real estate consultancy Noteges, the boom will never come back and one of its main causes is the demographic factor: "The Spanish baby boomers went en masse to the military, then to university and then to buy a house", but this situation would have ended years ago, and the birth rate in Spain has stagnated.

The Spanish law would allow the introduction of clauses considered abusive in mortgage loan contracts established by banks and which, in case of non-compliance, would end in the forced execution of the eviction.

[66][67][68] The economic crisis in Spain and the increase in the number of evictions - 400,000 from 2007 to 2012 - along with a series of suicides has led the General Council of the Judiciary to urge reform.

[70] Faced with the suicide of Amaia Egaña on November 9, 2012, the dean judge of Baracaldo, Juan Carlos Mediavilla, urged to undertake changes in the legislation surrounding evictions to avoid new "tragedies".

[85] The Court of Justice of the European Union in a ruling on Thursday, July 17, 2014, declared that the mortgage law reform approved by the People's Party in 2013 violates human rights.

The judgment indicates that the law is contrary to Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, relating to the right to effective judicial protection, and specifically to Directive 93/13 on consumer matters, and states that not suspending mortgage proceedings in the event of a claim before the commercial court is contrary to Community law.

[88] According to the General Council of Notaries, the number of homes sold, with ups and downs, remains at average figures similar to previous months.

Urbanization of Seseña , in the province of Toledo . The construction of macro-urbanizations caused the housing stock to grow disproportionately. In 2013 it was proposed that many of the houses that could not be sold would be destroyed.
The growth of coastal urbanization has been spectacular, and in many cases has not respected the environment and the coast. In the photo Benidorm , in the province of Alicante .
Unfinished buildings due to the crisis in La Coruña .
Unfinished second homes, near Valencia . Many projects were abandoned due to the impossibility of financing or selling them.
Evolution of housing prices in Spain 1985–2012. The real estate bubble in Spain started in 2001 and lasted until 2007 when housing reached its price peak, then the Spanish real estate crisis exploded, causing an economic, social and institutional crisis in Spain.
The number of people affected by mortgages they cannot pay led to the emergence in Spain of groups opposed to evictions. The tragedy that evictions meant for many families led the government to paralyze them in 2012.