A man checks out house listings at a realtor in Madrid. EFE

The Spanish real estate market experienced its first good news after a slump lasting over six years in the second quarter of 2014.

Between April and June house prices rose for the first time since early 2008, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The Housing Price Index grew an average 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2013, the numbers show.

Broken down by type of housing, the price of new homes rose 1.9 percent while that for existing homes grew 0.2 percent.

The drop in house prices had been slowing for several quarters, suggesting a gradual market recovery. The sharpest decline was registered in the third quarter of 2012, when prices dropped 15.2 percent compared with the same period in 2011.

After that, the rate of price contraction slowed to 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

The 2008 property bust that followed years of easy credit and untrammeled construction has been the defining factor of Spain’s economic crisis.