New home construction will ramp up again in Spain in 2016, despite having increased 29% in the year to end-October 2015 (according to Government data), according to forecasts by real estate services platform Aliseda, which was set up by the Banco Popular bank.

The firm expects demand for primary homes from first time buyers to be 80-85,000 this year, whilst families trading up the property ladder will demand 70-75,000, giving a total of around 160,000 new homes.

Looking further ahead, Aliseda reported: ‘We could be talking about a total of 200,000 new homes in construction per year in a short period of time.’

That would be a big increase on current levels, but still a long way from the 800,000 housing starts per year in Spain at the height of the boom.

Aliseda forecast that home sales will grow 15-20% this year, thanks to greater access to mortgage credit. They expect Spaniards to continue to favour buying over renting and that house prices will remain stable this year in general, but continue to fall in provinces with high inventories.

However, the Emancipation Observatory, run by the Youth Council of Spain recently revealed that 80% of young adults under 30 still live with their parents, and to fly the nest they would have to earn 98% more than the currently do in order to dedicate 60% of their salary on a mortgage to buy a flat of just 50sqm, according to Spanish Property Insight.