The big names of the consultancy world appear reasonably optimistic about the Spanish property market, and do not expect the recovery to come of the rails this year.

Big corporate consultants KPMG, Deloitte, and PwC are still reasonably upbeat about the outlook for the market this year, making positive forecasts at a recent conference on the Spanish property sector, despite signs the Spanish economy might not grow as much as originally thought.

Speaking on the panel at the ‘Investment and management trends in real estate and finance 2016’ trade conference organised by Europa Press and Servihabitat (the biggest real estate servicer in Spain), Amparo Solís, KMPG’s partner responsible for real estate and banking corporate finance, ventured to say that 2016 will end up “slightly better” than last year, when the sector attracted €18 billion of investment.

This year the experts forecast there will be around 440,000 home sales, up 10% and 12% on 2015, with a total investment of more than €20 billion. They don’t see any reason to expect the recovery in sales to come off the rails this year.

Alberto Valls, the Financial Advisory partner from Deloitte, explained that consumer demand is being fueled by rising economic growth, employment, and attractive financing, plus investors big and small alike.

Last year there were 400,000 home sales, but only 240,000 new mortgages signed, meaning that 40% of buyers were cash buyers, many of them probably investors. Valls described cash buyers as “pure liquidity” implying significant investor activity.

The conference also heard that land prices are set to rise in Spanish towns of more than 50,000 residents, as the stock of new homes on the market runs dry. That will bring upward pressure to bear on new home prices in the next few years.