The real estate debacle continues to plauge financial institutions. In the first two quarters, the number of apartments and houses rose by 15.7% (11.636 billion euros) in part because of properties that they have had to take on because of default payments and also through the process of cleaning up their balance sheets.
The volume has climed ot 85 billion euros and only Santander, Banesto and Caja 3 broke the general trend thanks to a strong rebound in share selling. On the contrary, the highest increases are hitting the banks with the most problems such as CatalunyaCaixa. They keep taking on toxic real estate assets, so it is increasingly critical that a bad bank is created to transfer them.
