Properties in spain

Half of Spain's estate agencies closed their doors last year amid a sharp downturn in the sector, according to figures from the nation's main estate agents' association API.

Of the roughly 80,000 estate agencies that existed at the beginning of 2007, only 40,000 have survived the slump in sales, the figures show.

'The majority of the agencies that disappeared were businesses that many times operated with nothing more than a mobile telephone,' API head Santiago Baena said. 'It was the social climbers that closed, those who entered the sector because they sought easy money,' he added.

AdvertisementThe closure of the agencies led to the loss of some 100,000 jobs, an estimate that does not take into account the reduction in staff levels at the large real estate agencies that are still open.

During Spain's decade-long building boom property prices soared but they stagnated last year due to rising interest rates and the international lending crunch that has hurt its credit-fuelled expansion.

Many Spanish families have fallen into negative equity and estate agents report that the average time that it takes to sell a property has increased.