MADRID – Spain’s housing market may be sliding downhill fast according to real estate analysts, but in the view of the Spanish government now is the time to buy.

"This is a good time to buy a home… for anyone who really needs one," Housing Minister Beatriz Corredor said Thursday in an interview on public broadcaster TVE.

Corredor, whose predecessor was a fierce critic of the speculation that led to double-digit growth in home prices in recent years, suggested that home prices are currently increasing "in line with inflation".

Analysts, however, are predicting that home prices will actually fall this year and next.

Calling the bursting of the bubble a "re-adjustment" in the sector, the minister acknowledged that construction firms had been building too many homes and that real estate’s contribution to GDP – roughly 18 percent – has been "far more than desired".

[El Pais / Ángeles Espinosa / Expatica]