The Spanish Ministry for Housing has announced that average Spanish property prices increased by 15.7% in the 1st quarter of 2005 compared to the same period last year. This is slightly down on the 17.4% registered in December 2004, indicating that that the spanish property market is experiencing a form of soft landing.

Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight says: "Despite some worrying evidence of emerging problems in places like the Costa del Sol, where an increasing number of investors report that properties arent selling and prices are falling, overall it looks as if the Spanish property market has a reasonable chance of gliding down to a period of stability in which prices rise roughly in line with inflation."