International investors seem to be regaining their confidence in the overseas property markets – Primelocation has reported that searches for international property soared a whopping 32 per cent in September, compared to the same time last year – but buyers are still looking towards traditional, ‘safe’ locations…
TheMoveChannel.com’s September Top of the Props chart, which tracks the interest of visitors to the site and finds the most popular countries each month, found France had topped the props last month.
Primelocation’s findings tallied with those, with France, Spain, the USA, Italy and Portugal taking the top five places in their index, significantly outperforming the sixth to tenth placed countries.
Last month also saw search levels up 10 per cent compared to August, indicating that consumer confidence in overseas investment property has begun to return.
But, whilst confidence is coming back, investors are still wary of putting their money into less stable or well know locations, thus they are looking to well established countries with a history of stability.
The property portal’s international development manager, Ann Wright said, “Given the recent turbulence we have experienced, a certain amount of caution remains and interest is currently concentrated in the traditionally strong and established markets.”
In terms of sales, Ms Wright believes there could be a wait between investors’ intentions to buy and actual sales.
“Although property prices in the top three countries are attractive, having fallen substantially in the downturn, the pound is not particularly strong against the euro or the US dollar at the moment and buyers may hold off, watching the market for the most lucrative time to make the purchase.”
TheMoveChannel.com found that it wasn’t just residential investors targeting France – commercial investment property in the country was on the up too. The country is fast emerging as the second-most popular market after the UK following a static first quarter as a result of the ongoing hangover from and continual effects of the economic crisis. The French property investment market is now on the move again, with investment levels doubling in the second quarter of this year, the biggest increase for that period in Europe.
For more information on overseas investment properties and the property market in general, please visit http://investment.themovechannel.com/
-ENDS-
Notes to editors:
TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.
For further information, please contact:
Dan Johnson
Managing Director
www.themovechannel.com
0207 952 7650
