By 2002, many of the once crowded Costa beaches were beginning to thin out and many local foreign-owned bars were beginning to fold... tourists were no longer coming in their huge numbers, house prices were slowing and more and more secondary home rentals were coming onto the market, driving the once highly profitable rental market on a downward spiral. Many people were leaving too! 

Since then, Spain has rapidly fallen from favour as the best place for a HOME in the SUN. Prices are still too high, amenities failing and there is too much uncontrolled overbuilding and now too much CRIME! A recent car purse snatching and mugging incident in Alicante, Costa Blanca put the mother of a good friend of mine in hospital with serious injuries. Tragically, she died of blood poisoning some days later!

I recently attended a property exhibition show in the UK to see for myself what were being called the new emerging markets. What I saw, were dozens of new countries all vying for potential new home buyers, with such things as easy access with cheap new airlines, low taxes, low cost of living and cheap labor to go with the cheap house prices. Unfortunately, not all of these new countries have real estate and fiscal laws in place to protect prospective buyers. Then there is the question of buying your HOME in the SUN! Now, I know that Bulgaria and Croatia have sun, but how much sun? 

Well, How About The Next REAL ESTATE Ladder... Touted As Dubai?

Having been to Dubai for business, I can only give my brief and personal opinion. Plenty of sun if you like 45C or 115F! And now plenty of high rise buildings on the Arabian coast, along with all of the new Footballer Housewives, making it their new hot spot! Being called the next great property market, it is rapidly being developed before their oil revenues run out! Mind you, you can buy a 2 bedroom apartment with a sea view for about 200,000 dollars. However, it’s the 5 - 6 hr. flight from Europe, the cost of the airfare and the new fuel surcharges that I would worry about, not to mention that you can’t actually buy a freehold property, only a leasehold!

What about other European sun spots that have been traditional favourite vacation and secondary home locations such as Greece, Turkey, Italy, Portugal etc.?

They are all enjoying a new wave of activity from the Spain fall out and from the more conservative European buyer who is wary of departing from what are traditionally English speaking, secondary markets. An interesting recent UK poll now put Italy as the favorite place to buy a home in the sun with France coming in a close second. 

These two markets have always enjoyed lots of foreign buyers since they have great regional charm, usually good long summers, great food and a very romantic language to go with the men! House prices in these two markets can vary from as little as 30,000 dollars for a studio apartment to well into the millions for a palace or a chateau, and again with lots of cheap European flight carriers.

Italy and France both have the traditional sunny, southern climates, plenty of coastal beauty and of course, mountains for winter sports. It is therefore understandable that these markets will continue to grow as Spain declines, for the foreseeable future. 

However, the new countries on the property bandwagon, such as Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic etc, are all trying to attract new buyers, and they are doing it too, with promises of growing economies and anticipated rapidly rising property prices as they enter and become full parters of the EU. 

As for me, I sit happily in my lovely sunny corner of SW France, watching our next mini boom. This little known part of SW France  recently made headlines in a London paper for being one of the top places to buy, having very reasonable property prices, a good all year round climate, lots of outdoor activities, fabulous food and wine and as of yet, not inundated with weekend British car booters. (Like a garage sale, except the junk is sold out of the car trunk!).

A Gascon, stone built, 3/ 4 bedroom house (in need of restoration) can be purchased for less than 180,000 dollars. However, for those not wishing to engage in a re-do project, a renovated period property can be found for around $240,000, still less than half the price of a similar property in southern Spain, and not too far off the price of that 2 bedroom sea view apartment in Dubai! No wonder there is renewed interest from the British, Irish, Germans and Belgians, perhaps some more adventurous Americans, too!

Where does all of this lead??? As some buyers follow the new property boom, some will continue to go to Spain… and I think that a recently overheard comment from a Brit summed up his feelings well... We have it all here on the Costa del Sol, overcrowding, overpriced and overbuilt… ’’It’s England in the sun’’! 

Life from across the pond... ...is a great life in Gascony!

The following is the previous article that Rosemary wrote for the magazine:

• Living In Gascony! - Magical France