In a sign that the slump in home sales in Spain may have finally come to an end, home sales increased by 4% last year, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

There were 286,408 home sales last year (excluding social housing), up 4% compared to 2013, but still down by 60% compared to the peak year of 2007.

However, with the exception of some local segments in prime areas of the big cities and popular coasts, the Spanish property market is still deep in crisis, and the gulf between new build and resale transactions widened throughout last year, as the pipeline of new homes that can realistically be sold began to run dry.

However, Spanish construction activity has begun to increase again, rising by 15.9%, according to the latest monthly figures (November 2014), compared to the same month the previous year. For the same month, the average increase in the EU was 2.5%, and across the Eurozone just 2.2%.