Spanish real estate prices continue to fall - According to the national Spanish statistics office, residential real estate prices in Spain fell by 13.7% in 2012, compared to 7.4% in 2011. This is the sharpest fall since the real estate bubble burst. Housing prices have therefore fallen by 30% since 2007. Several private bodies claim that the fall has been even sharper (35%). Last year's brutal correction is mainly due to the depreciation in real estate assets owned by the banking sector, the biggest property owner in the country. According to the Spanish ministry of the economy, demand has particularly picked up on the coast where foreign investment volume is almost at its pre-crisis level. At the high end of the real estate market, statistics demonstrate a sharp increase in purchases by Russian investors (11.5%) and Norwegians (9.7%). The British are much less active than in 2007 (18.9% compared with 61.9%). The Spanish real estate market is, however, far from having recovered and is still in danger of experiencing further falls due to the high level of household debt and the high level of unsold properties, combined with next to no bank loans being granted, falling wages and mass unemployment. (IL/transl.fl)