FOREIGN PROPERTY MILLIONS

PALMA
THE Balearics was the fourth most popular destination in Spain for foreign property buyers during the third quarter of last year.
Data published by the Spanish Housing Ministry yesterday reveals that foreign investors purchased 282.7 million euros of property in the Balearics during the last three months of 2007.

In fact, the total number of property transactions carried out in the Balearics by foreign investors nearly reached 1'000, 20 percent of Balearic property sales, with 74.8 million euros being spent on new properties and the remaining 207 million euros on used houses and apartments.

The most popular destination for foreign house hunters coming to Spain was Andalusia, where over 700 million euros was spent on property during the last quarter of last year, closely followed by Valencia and Catalonia. Figures released yesterday show that there has been a sharp downturn in activity on the domestic property market this year but the Balearic real estate sector is confident that the foreign investment market will remain steady.

There is, however, some concern that the strong Euro may have a negative effect on the British investment market in the long term if the pound fails to regain its value over the next few months.