House sales plummet to new low in Spain

House sales in Spain fell by 18 percent in October in comparison with the same month in 2010, figures published by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) on Tuesday showed. The figure of just 22,482 houses sold during the month is the lowest since INE began its calculations at the start of 2007, beating the previous low of 24,100 operations in April 2007. Of the 22,482 houses purchased, 11,432 were new houses, accounting for half of the total, while the other sales were of second hand buildings. This October's figures presented a new setback after the market showed some signs of recovery in September, following a fall of 38.8 percent in August. The drop of sales also proved that the lowering of sales tax from 8 percent to 4 percent, introduced by the outgoing government of Jose Luis Zapatero has failed to stimulate Spain's sluggish real estate market.