Evolution of the real estate market in Spain

In the last few years in Spain, especially, Madrid and the Costa del Sol they build more building than United Kingdom, France and Germany all together.
Commercial centres and luxury apartments are produced in enormous quantity and very fast, therefore the real estate sector became the heart of the Spanish economy.
The real estate sector grew very fast from 2000-2008, they build 5.3 million building which were sold at high prices. We also need to have in mind that the Spanish population is less than half of the German population. In Madrid and in the Costa del sol the price for a square meter in a district is over a 2000 euros.
Many foreigners with high incomes were investing heavily in the country. Marbella is only an example where exclusive property can be found.
Marbella has been hit the hardest by the crisis and the prices has gone down. Many people has made a loss on their investment because of the houses which are going under the price they paid to buy them.
The construction companies has benn affected negatively and building has been reduced by 40 % in 2008. In Marbella and other localities, construction has fallen by 50%.
An other problem which was seen just before the crisis is that local government in Marbella has given illegal construction permit to people and has reduce the confidence of foreign investors and local ones.