Juan Lazcano, President of the National Construction Confederation, and Santiago Aguirre, President of Aguirre Newman, one of Spain’s best known real estate consultancies, both say the market has not yet bottomed.

Aguirre, whose sister is Esperanza Aguirre, President of the Autonomous Region of Madrid, has warned that difficult years remain ahead and that few developer will survive.

“The outlook is not good and prices are still trending down,” he told the Spanish press. “It will take several years to absorb the excess stock and few developers will survive their financial problems, even though the market hasn’t disappeared.”

Aguirre estimates that prices have fallen an average of 17pc and could fall another 15pc. He recommends that vendors drop their prices now to make a sale, rather than wait in the hope that prices will recover. Having just had to drop the price of his own home to make a sale, Aguirre is speaking from experience.

Lazcano says the property market still has some way to fall before prices stabilise, and that reducing the glut of homes will be the key to a recovery.