Spain house sales fall 7.1 pct in April

Spanish house sales fell 7.1 percent year-on-year in April to 55,802 units after a 39 percent fall in March, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Thursday.

Government data also showed a 13.8 percent year-on-year fall in April house mortgage lending to 12.24 billion euros ($19.2 billion), following a 42 percent drop in house mortgage lending in March.

April's lower rate of falls in house mortgage lending and house sales can be partly explained by the fact that Easter was in March this year and in April last year, INE noted.

"This sudden easing is probably due to Easter, and until we see how the index behaves over the next few months we really can't draw any conclusions," said Sergio Diaz from Caja Madrid.

Spain, the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, is suffering a deeper than expected slowdown as the end of a decade-long property boom coincides with the global credit crunch, record oil prices and a strong euro. Housing Minister Beatriz Corredor said on Wednesday the sharp slowdown in Spain's housing sector will be over by the second half of 2009 and called the sector's decline a necessary correction for Spain, where house prices tripled in the decade to 2007.

Expectations of a further Eurozone interest rate rise at next week's monthly European Central Bank meeting to 4.25 percent from 4.0 percent are adding pressure to an already depressed sector. The average interest rate in April for mortgages stood at 5.13 percent, which was 11.1 percent more expensive than a year earlier, INE said.

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