New Research Reveals Top 101 Overseas Property Destinations

(Bluehost) May 9, 2008 -- A new study published today by Globaledge.co.uk reveals the most searched for overseas property destinations by UK internet users. The research looks at over 200,000 property-related searches over the last 100 days from the UK Wordtracker database and groups them by overseas property location.

Spain (http://www.globaledge.co.uk/link-partners/covering?tierid=1041&type=10964) is top of the list, accounting for over 10% of total searches, and the list is dotted with numerous Spanish towns and coastal names. Although the obvious locations of Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol are the most popular regions, the popularity of the Canary Islands is the most interesting finding. There is considerable search volume even at local level with Costa Teguise (Lanzarote), Palm Mar (Tenerife), Caleta de Fuste (Fuerteventura) all making the top 101.

France, Bulgaria and Cyprus (http://www.globaledge.co.uk/link-partners/covering?tierid=1013&type=10964) are next after Spain, but perhaps the biggest surprise is Italy, which appears only at position 21. Italian regions also fair badly with only Umbra, Puglia and Le Marche making the cut. Globaledge.co.uk Director Ashley Rigg says: "In economic terms, Italy has been dubbed the sick man of Europe and buying there is incredibly complicated. It's also expensive in many regions, which is probably why Tuscany doesn't make the list at all."

In the emerging markets, the usual suspects of Bulgaria and Dubai (http://www.globaledge.co.uk/link-partners/covering?tierid=1075&type=10964) both feature in the top ten and Morocco also does well, coming at number 13. Interestingly, Prague makes it into the top 20 which will come as a surprise to some. "The Czech Republic is one of the best performing economies in Central and Eastern Europe and finance is easily available. It's even possible to get 100% mortgages. News of the opportunities have obviously filtered through to the British public," says Rigg

One location that hasn't been picked up by many consumers is Egypt, which only makes number 57 on the list despite "having some of the best rental yields and growth prospects in the world", according to Rigg. "It has had quite a bit of press recently but it may be the perceived political risks that are turning investors off."

Methodology and Data

The data was taken from the Wordtracker UK database on 6th May. Our team analysed the most popular 200,000 searches containing the word "property" over the 100 days to 6th May 2008. The phrases where grouped by location to create the list. For example, both "Property in Greece" and "Greek property for sale" are grouped under Greece.

http://www.globaledge.co.uk/news/details/101-most-popular-overseas-property-destinations/20490 [link to article on website

###