The Spanish housing market is still shrinking in what is turning out to be the worst year since the crisis began, but at least the falls are not as bad as earlier in the year.

There were 24,408 house sale in May (excluding social housing), 9pc less than a year ago and 65pc less than May 2007.

As you can see from the chart above, home sales have been the lowest in every month this year since the crisis began.

Year to date, there were 120,418 home sales in the first five months, 22pc lower than the same period last year and 64pc lower than 2007. Clearly, this is the worst year yet.

The good news is that the decline in sales in May, at -9pc, was much smaller than the declines in the first three months of the year, which ranged between -21pc and -33pc.

My hunch is that the market will bottom out this year, in volume terms at least.

The following table provides all the key data on Spanish home sales over the last 5 years (click to enlarge).