The number of new homes finished in the first quarter of the year fell 31.4pc YoY to 30,151, according to the latest figures from the Government (Fomento).

Compared to the peak in 2007, the number of construction completions has plunged 74pc, putting millions of Spaniards out of work.

If that sounds bad, brace yourself for worse news to come. Thanks to long lead-times in the building industry, construction completions lag housing starts by about 2 years, and if you look at planning approvals today, they are down some 93pc from the peak (Q1 2012 / Q1 2007). That means we can expect new home completions to carry on falling for at least another year until they are down by more than 90pc.

The latest figures show that 98pc of the new homes finished today were built by developers for private housing, rather than by local and regional governments for social housing. At a time like this you would expect the government to be building more social housing. But the Spanish state can’t afford to.