This could be the beginning of the end of the house price crash, if the Sareb are right.

Around one hundred investment funds are talking to the Sareb about buying property-related assets, leading to healthy “competition for property portfolios released for sale,” according to Walter de Luna, Managing Director of the Sareb – Spain’s so-called bad bank– in recent comments to the Spanish press.

Strong interest in Sareb asset sales from international investors is a positive sign that “that might lead to increases in real estate prices,” he said.

De Luna points towards recent house price increases in parts of Barcelona and Madrid, which he interprets as a sign of things to come. “Those cities tend to act as the engines of the sector,” he explained, whilst revealing that “in the process of selling the assets of the Sareb, we are also noticing an improvement in the prices being offered.”

According to De Luna, international investors are no longer worried about a catastrophic situation like Spain being forced out of the Euro. The main concern investors now have is how long the recovery will take. That may not sound like much to celebrate, but it’s a big improvement on last year.