A few years ago, they paved over much of Spain with concrete. Now it is Spanish property companies that are piling up in the skip. Most of their struggles are concentrated in the highly geared but unlisted companies that make up 90 per cent of the sector. But even giants are struggling. Metrovacesa, Spain's largest property company, is set to be acquired in a debt-for-equity swap. Having failed to raise enough money by selling HSBC's Canary Wharf headquarters back to the bank, the Sanahuja family has handed over 54 per cent of the business it controlled to settle the €4.5bn it borrowed to fund their stake.

Spain's listed banks and unlisted savings banks are no strangers to playing landlord; during the 1990s recession they busily swapped loans for shares. Last year, they escaped the subprime crisis mostly unscathed. Today, though, they have been taken unawares by the speed with which the country's property sector has caved in. Metrovacesa's collapse is almost a systemic issue: its €7bn of debt accounts for almost a seventh of all Spanish banks' bad loans.