According to the Idealista property website, there was a nine per cent fall in the number of homes for sale in the Balearics in the third quarter of the year. In Palma there was a 13% decrease.
The fall in the Balearics more or less matched the national average of ten per cent. In Spain's cities, the greatest decrease, notes Idealista, was Oviedo - down 32%. This was followed by A Coruña and Pontevedra (-30%), Seville (-29%), Zaragoza (-29%) and Valencia (-28%). The highest increase was eight per cent in Girona.
Spokesperson Francisco Iñareta, says: "There has been a decade with a lack of foresight in the development of land for new housing. The high cost of labour, bureaucratic labyrinths and the disappearance of construction companies are factors which have led us to the situation we are now in - supply falling by double digits and the price of housing at its highest, even above that reached at the peak of the real estate bubble.
"The main victims are the most vulnerable families who find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They do not have the capacity to save enough to apply for a mortgage. And the longer they wait, the more expensive housing becomes, making it even more difficult to access it.
"A political consensus is increasingly urgent in order to launch the measures necessary to accelerate the construction of new housing and developments in the most stressed markets."