Beatriz Corredor, the Spanish housing secretary, promised new planning laws to end the confusion which has led to some British home owners being ordered to knock down their properties deemed to have been illegally built.

“Come here calmly, and trust in the system that we have and the transparency we provide,” she said.

“There is a very attractive offer on the table here, with prices significantly lower than two years ago, and you will certainly find what you are looking for.”

Her plea reflects growing alarm in Spain at the huge stock of newly built homes waiting to be sold - of which 400,000 are near the coast - since the country’s economic crisis began. Prices have tumbled by up to 40 per cent and banks and construction firms are desperate to recoup some of their investment.

In recent years, Britons have bought one third of all Spanish properties sold to foreigners. But many have recently been put off by horror stories of planning permission being retrospectively revoked and other complications, and the number of British buyers has slumped.

Over the next few weeks the Spanish government will also embark on a “roadshow” around Britain and other northern European countries to promote the country’s property market. House prices have fallen on average by 24 per cent in the Malaga area and by 19 per cent in Tenerife, Mrs Corredor said. “They are very attractive reductions, especially in properties of high quality. They are properties that are worth the trouble.”

The Spanish economy picked up again at the end of last year driven by external demand after having stalled in the third quarter, the Bank of Spain said Friday. In its first monthly economic bulletin of the year, the bank said GDP climbed 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months when output was unchanged. Compared with the end of 2009, the economy grew 0.6 percent. For the whole of 2010, the economy shrank 0.1 percent, an outcome better than the government’s initial forecast of a fall of 0.3 percent.

“It is positive that Spanish growth in 2010 — if the Bank of Spain’s figures are confirmed — are above forecast,” Reuters quoted Xavier Segura, the head of the research department of savings bank Caixa Catalunya, as saying.

The National Statistics Institute is due to release its flash estimate for final quarter growth on February 11 and a breakdown of the figures five days later. The economy shrank 3.7 percent in 2009 as Spain suffered its worst economic crisis in living memory. The country eventually emerged from almost two years in recession in the first quarter of last year, but growth has been at best anemic, with Spain lagging behind the rest of the euro zone. The recovery has been constrained by the government‘s austerity drive to rein in its yawning public deficit, with hikes in taxes and duties, an average 5-percent cut in public sector wages and greatly reduced outlays on public works, which has put a damper on domestic demand.