60% of Spanish estate agents have folded

Country:  Other Spanish Places, Spain; Spain

9 June 2009

Around 60% of the 80,000 to 90,000 estate agents in Spain have ceased trading, as a consequence of the Spanish property downturn, according to Santiago Baena, president of CGCOAPI real estate agents’ association.

Despite the staggering number of agencies that have folded, Baena denied that it is a “crisis”, instead referring to the situation facing the Spanish property sector as a “little bit of adjustment.”

Baena stressed that the only crisis is the one facing the financial sector, stating that the next set of financial results released by the big banks will be “scandalous.”

Baena believes that the turmoil facing the Spanish housing market will continue until the end of the year, but projects that the market will plateau in 2009.