Costa del Sol Property Sales

By Sebastian O’Kelly  20th July 2004

While the domestic property market is fast coming off the boil, British buyers are showing no loss of appetite in finding their bargain bolthole overseas. According to a plausible guesstimate from Sainsbury's Bank, 112,000 homeowners are planning to move abroad over the next six months, adding to the 1.4million Britons who now own an overseas property.

Within eight years, it is estimated that one in eight Britons aged over 55 will be living abroad. The question arises of where they will actually go. In the past, the obvious answer would have been Spain and its islands. But these days the British are proving to be remarkably openminded over where they plan to go lotus-eating in the sun.

According to latest research for Homes Overseas magazine, involving 1,500 potential buyers, Spain and its islands appealed to only 66 per cent - well down on its previous overwhelming popularity. Instead, 37 per cent of potential buyers preferred France, the traditional refuge of cultivated, Francophile Peter Mayle types.

Thanks to effective marketing by estate agencies such as VEF, and the first signs of a mass newbuild market, the popularity of France is soaring - so much so that British buyers are distorting local property prices.

Prices in Languedoc Roussillon rose 28 per cent last year, triple the national average, thanks to the influx of British buyers, according to research by Barclays. Even more surprising than the appeal of France is that 31 per cent of potential buyers were attracted to Eastern Europe and Turkey. Of these, 8.5 per cent wanted to buy in Bulgaria - in spite of negative publicity concerning corruption and appalling building quality --Turkey at 8 per cent and Croatia at 7.7 per cent.

The latter, though tiny, is probably the hottest market in the Med right now.

'Sales since April have been incredibly good,' says Paul Keppler, a veteran of the Costa del Sol property boom who set up Croatiansun last year. 'Last week we sold nine new-build properties to British buyers either on the coast between Dubrovnik and Split or the outlying islands.'

Unlike Spain, which is popular with those wishing to retire, Croatia is still regarded as frontier territory and buyers tend to be in their 40s or early 50s and still working in some way. The sharp rise in popularity of Florida, the home of choice for 19 per cent in the survey, is attributableto the excellent value in housing there, coupled with the weak dollar. That Cyprus is the destination of choice for 14 per cent is a triumph of marketing, though quality of new-build on the island has improved markedly.

In spite of strenuous effort and expense, Portugal at 13.8 per cent is only fractionally preferred to Italy, at 13 per cent, which makes no serious attempt to woo British homebuyers at all.

Meanwhile, on the key Costa del Sol, where Hamptons reckon one million Britons will own homes in four years, it is another good summer for the property market. 'We are finding it easier to sell cheaper houses below the £400,000 level,' says Karsten Trend Poulsen, of Livingstone Estates. 'The more expensive properties, which sold well last year, are sticking.'

As in London, the wealthy are proving cautious on the Costa del Sol. Not that that stopped footballer Michael Owen who last week bought two houses there --at £400,000 each - for his family.