Something is stirring in Mallorca's property market. The overall market still looks depressed, but look a bit closer and you find that the quality segment is coming back to life.

Once a star performer in Europe's 11-year old monetary union, Spain has become the wayward laggard. Growth data last week showed the Spanish economy - hit badly by a property market collapse and soaring unemployment - stuck firmly in recession in the third quarter, while the eurozone as a whole grew 0.4 per cent.

After 15 years, Spaniards are finally seeing the rampant corruption beneath all the uncontrollable property speculation.

Europe's deepest recession since World War II officially ended when the world's biggest single trading bloc joined Japan and the United States in returning to growth.