Spanish popularity unabated

With so many headlines about property companies failing, rumours of price collapses and the bulldozing of illegally-built villas, Spain's property market has taken not a little punishment is some sections of the media of late. Yet still they keep on coming.

They, of course, are British investors. Figures from Kyero.com, the Spanish property portal, have shown that long-term letting has emerged as one way for investors to be able to acquire a property to rent out without actually needing to buy something outright, homesworldwide.com reports. The last year has seen the number of enquiries about such arrangements treble in number, perhaps suggesting that for many landlords it has been judged the wise way to approach the overseas property market. As the website noted, it offers the chance to assess the market before committing to any purchases, while long-term letters can evict tenants more easily under new laws.

One might even add that if a property turns out to be among those deemed illegal and subject to a crackdown, there will not be the loss experienced by those who have bought such properties only to see their assets turned to rubble before their eyes.

Of course, the demolition of illegal properties has received plenty of attention, not least this week when it was shown nobody is too famous to be affected. Actor Antonio Banderas was told by a Marbella court to pull down part of his Costa Del Sol villa, which was built by a previous owner without a licence.

Yet it has been emphasised recently that the scale of the problem is exaggerated. Mark Stucklin, editor of buyers' advice website Spanishpropertyinsight.com, said the crackdown was mainly confined to Andalucia and Valencia, the scale of the problem was "tiny" and with the right research and legal advice buying in Spain was still safe.

Moreover, such considerations are not putting off the tourists, a major source of buy-to-let income. New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown that Spain has remained the most popular destination for British holidaymakers.

The statistics reveal that in 2006, overall overseas travel was up 4.7 per cent to 69.5 million trips, of which Spain came top as the destination for 14.4 million. France was second on 10.9 million.

Such trends indicate that, for all the negative comment of late, tourism in Spain from UK residents continues to rise. As such, investors can be sure that there is a healthy and growing market which offers potential for buy-to-let landlords to go on doing well.

In today's world Property investment is an excellent investment option especially investment in UK

Jim Barnaby is a real estate investment broker and successful property investment adviser delivering research and selected UK and overseas property investment solutions with experience in spanish properties, french property investment, German property, Cyprus holiday homes, Property in Cape Verde, German property investment, cape verde property buy to let property