Article: Builders' nightmare; Spain's property crash.(The bubble bursts)

The biggest risk would be to buy

The housing bust gets ever bigger

SPANIARDS are not used to housing busts. Since property seemed for so long to be a one-way bet, some still find it hard to grasp that prices can ever fall. Recently 2,000 people spent a chilly night sleeping out to sign up for "cheap" new homes due to be built in the Madrid dormitory town of Fuenlabrada. They could have found lower prices on the internet.

The market is dropping fast. Property fairs tout discounts of as much as 60% on new-built homes, or even "buy one, get one free" offers. "All the statistics show a fall," concedes the housing minister, Beatriz Corredor. Yet ...

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