The cost of new housing fell 2% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2008, the first annual decrease since the property market bubble started to deflate in mid-2007.

According to data published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the price of housing as a whole fell by 7.6% between January and March, the biggest decrease since prices started to fall in the second quarter of 2008. 

The main reason for the fall is still the slump in prices in the second-hand-property market, but it is the first time that new housing has also seen a decrease.
 
House prices fell in all the autonomous communities in the first quarter, with the biggest drops being registered in Catalunya (13.7%), Comunidad de Madrid (11.2%), Basque Country(10.8%), Navarra (10.1%), Aragón (9.7%), Balearic Islands (8.1%) and La Rioja (8%).

Below national average drops were registered in Cantabria (7.2%), Comunidad Valenciana (5.2%), Canary Islands (4.3%), Andalucía (3.9%), Castilla and León (3.3%), Castilla-La Mancha (2.5%), Extremadura (2.2%), Asturias (1.8%), Murcia (1.6%) and Galicia (0.5%).