Spanish house sales increased by 8.8%

 Spanish house sales increased by 8.8 percent in June compared to a year earlier, according to data published Thursday by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE).
A total of 26,076 sales were registered in June, pointing to a 7.3 percent fall in comparison with May.
In the first six months of the year, housing sales fell by 5.4 percent compared with the same period in 2013.
The INE said that sales of new houses, which accounted for 37.7 percent of the total, fell by 3 percent to 9,819 purchases in June in comparison with a year ago.
The sale of second-hand houses increased 17.4 percent to 16,257 purchases in June on an annual basis.
Meanwhile, the sale of non-subsidized houses increased 9.9 percent to 23,596 purchases in June.