Spain home sales hit by price mismatch

[MADRID] Offers to buy Spanish homes fell short of the asking prices by 23 per cent on average last year, damping expectations that the nation's residential values have reached bottom, according to Idealista.com.

Bids were 22 per cent less for homes in Madrid and 23 per cent lower in Barcelona, according to the study published on Tuesday by Idealista, Spain's largest property website. Home prices rose for the first time since 2010 in the third quarter, official statistics showed.

"There is still a mismatch between asking prices and selling prices, for which there is no official data in Spain," said Fernando Encinar, Idealista's co-founder.

A pickup in foreign investment in Spanish real estate and a recovering economy are prompting sellers to refrain from lowering prices as they hold out for better offers. Home sales fell 16 per cent in November from a year earlier and dropped 4.1 per cent on a monthly basis, according to data r…