Southern Eurozone Countries Continue to Attract Property-Buyers From the UK

An interesting article by The Economic Voice on August 13, 2013 showing how southern delights of the Eurozone drawing property buyers from UK.

Knock-down property prices in southern Eurozone countries continue to attract property-buyers from the UK, with interest in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece getting noticeably stronger during the second quarter of the year.

Demand for information about foreign property rose 36 per cent year-on-year for the three months to the end of June, according to the most recent Overseas Guides Company (OGC) Quarterly Index, which measures interest in destinations popular with second homeowners and expats.

OGC – a free resource for overseas property-buyers – attracted 9,096 direct requests for information in the form of downloads of its free Buying Guides for Q2 2013, compared with 6,707 in Q2 2012. While this represented a decrease of six per cent from the 9,685 enquiries it generated in the first quarter of 2013, the slight fall was largely down to the seasonal fall in enquiries about long-haul destinations, including Australia, USA, Canada and New Zealand.

“It seems the euro’s continued strength during the second quarter hasn’t put British buyers off tapping into some very attractive property prices in southern Eurozone countries,” said Richard Way, Editor at The Overseas Guides Company. “There are reports of buyers taking advantage of current favourable euro mortgages, expecting their loan to become even better value if the pound strengthens in coming months.”

Mr Way continued: “Enquiries for Spain were up, if slightly, on Q1, while Italy, Portugal and Greece saw hikes of 18 per cent, 9 per cent and 48 per cent respectively. It’s interesting that enquiries for Turkey were also up by 30 per cent on the previous quarter, despite the civil unrest in Istanbul – and that while France’s enquiries fell by 5 per cent, it still remains our most popular destination.”

The total number of enquiries received by OGC for the first half of 2013 was 18,781, a year-on-year increase of 43 per cent from 13,175 for the same period in 2012.
OGC has a quality database of approximately 64,800 people interested in buying overseas property and/or moving abroad.

Article Source: http://www.economicvoice.com/southern-delights-of-the-eurozone-drawing-uk-property-buyers-looking-for-a-bargain/50039353