Any hope that a revival of Spain’s housing market could help kick-start the country’s economy is likely to prove misplaced

Recent months have seen house prices in Spain rise for the first time in six years, after the housing sector was badly hit by the financial crisis. José García Montalvo writes that one of the most damaging aspects of the crisis in Spain was that the housing bubble experienced during the 2000s was also accompanied by declining productivity. He notes that the underlying picture in the real estate sector remains fragile and that in contrast to previous economic crises in Spain, a revival of the housing market is unlikely to offer a route to economic recovery.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Banks to halt evictions in “extreme” cases http://www.europeansources.info/record/banks-to-halt-evictions-in-extreme-cases/

---