Spain's housing sales rise by 29 pct in April

Spanish housing sales rose by 29 percent in April when compared with the same month of a year earlier, according to data released on Thursday by Spain's Statistical Office (INE).

The INE reported that 35,199 operations were registered in the fourth month of the year with sales of new houses rising by 17.6 percent to 7,171 purchases and those of second-hand increasing by 32.3 percent to a total of 28,028 purchases.

Some 89.5 percent of the purchases were non-subsidized houses, whose sales rose by 30 percent to 31,505 purchases, while purchases of subsidized houses rose by 21 percent to 3,694 purchases.

Thursday also saw the INE report a 6.3 percent rise in housing prices in the first quarter of the year, which meant the biggest rise since the third quarter of 2007 when prices increased by 9.2 percent.

Housing prices have been rising for eight quarters in a row on a year-on-year basis.

Both increases show signs of recovery in the country's real estate sector. Endit