Spanish lender Bankinter’s results for 2013 reveal residential sales were made with an average discount of 41pc.

Residential sales made up 61pc of Bankinter’s real estate disposal last year, and 62pc of assets were less than two years old, as illustrated by the graphic above.

The discount applies to the original repossession price booked by the bank, which would have been significantly lower than peak market prices. This gives you an idea of how much Spanish property prices have fallen since the peak.

Another healthy bank, Banco Sabadell, sold 18,500 homes last year, up 34pc, with an average discount of 48pc.

Last year sales for Bankinter were the equivalent of 94pc of repossessions, so than bank is still taking on more homes than it gets rid of, but only just. This will be a big improvement on previous years.

Bankinter’s end of year profits were up by 73pc on 2012.

Bankinter has not been nationalised, and has weathered the crisis better than other lenders, with fewer bad loans and exposure to real estate, especially loans to developers.

Healthy banks like Bankinter are slowly getting back into a position where they can start lending mortgages again. The housing market won’t recover in any meaningful sense until the banks start lending again.