Real Estate Markets Crash in Spain

April 25 (EIRNS)--"The specter of the explosion of the Spanish real estate bubble has appeared on the Madrid stock exchange," says today's Le Figaro . The Financial Times' Lex Column says, "In the past few days, Spanish real estate has exhibited all the signs of a bursting bubble." They report that the crisis was blamed on Valencia-based property developer Astroc Mediterraneo, which lost 9.5% yesterday alone, with a cumulative 70% drop in the past seven trading days, while Colonial lost 22% and Inmocaral fell 20%. The sell-off then propagated to the banks, as BBV Agentaria, Spain's second-largest, lost 3% and Banco de Bilao and Santander fell about 2.5%. Some 24% of all Spanish loans are to construction and property development companies. This follows a crazy year of speculation where some of the real estate companies saw their profits grow tenfold.