Europe’s largest property markets are attracting large numbers of British buyers looking for bargain properties. Searches in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece have increased by 134% this year up until the end of August. It would appear that this is probably due to holiday home buyers trying to take advantage of the economic climate to secure themselves a bargain.
Spanish property searches increased the most by 145.7%, which would seem to indicate that Spain is still a popular country to invest in. Property searches in Portugal (123.9%) were second highest followed by Italy (98.9%), Greece (55.3%) and Ireland (44.1%)
The economic difficulties that these countries have undergone have probably contributed to an increase in searches by British buyers in pursuit of properties in these markets.
At the beginning of the crisis property prices dropped sharply but recently they appear to be holding firm. Maybe it is because of the belief of buyers that the markets are bottoming out that we are seeing an increase of activity from them.
It would look like foreign buyers are supporting prices in the popular markets and will continue doing so.
