By Andrew Batt:
Spain has been hailed as the most popular overseas property destination of 2012.
Some 18.3 percent of potential property buyers were looking at the Iberian nation on TheMoveChannel.com and a network of other Europe-based overseas property portals last year. The United States was ranked second with 15.4 percent of enquiries and France was in third place.
British buyers were the main drivers of activity, accounting for almost four of every 10 visitors, followed by US investors (15 percent). Buyers from the rest of the world accounted for the other 48 percent, with Australia, Spain, Ireland and Canada responsible for the majority of interest.
It seems that when it comes to property, you can’t beat a good old-fashioned home. Houses made up half of all enquiries while apartments were the second most popular type of property, accounting for 38 per cent. Bigger isn’t always better, though, with investors preferring two-bedroom properties over three and four bedroom properties.
The recession has left its mark last year as buyers counted their pennies to focus on lower price brackets: properties with asking prices of under £100,000 were responsible for 6 in 10 enquiries (58 percent) in 2012, with those between £0 and 50,000 attracting over one-third of attention (35 percent). Demand weakened at the higher end of the market: only one in 10 enquiries involved a property worth £500,000 and over.
Ivan Radford, Editor of TheMoveChannel.com, said: "While it is interesting to see buyers’ preference for houses and properties with two bedrooms, the report is also a reminder that no matter what the economic condition is in any country, two things remain more important to buyers than anything else: location and price."
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@allproperty.com.sg
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