Spain is top of Brits' dream places to live

PALMA
SPAIN is at the top of the list of destinations where Britons would like to live, according to an online survey.
The research carried out by UK Wordtracker found that over 10 percent of those looking up information about foreign countries on the internet were interested in Spain.

The highest runner up was France with 4.48 percent, less than half the amount of enquiries that there were for Spain.
Spain also took up 10 of the most sought after destinations. These were the Costa del Sol, the Costa Blanca, Murcia, Marbella, Torrevieja, the Costa Almeria, Majorca and Fuerteventura.

Those expatriates who choose to live here are also patting themselves on the back. Though Australia is the number one choice for emigrants from the UK, Spain is top of the expat “Happy League”. According to a survey carried out by OzForex and britishexpats.com, Spain received a 91 percent happiness rating from expats, compared to 84.2 percent for Australia.

It's not all good news though. The Spanish Ministry for Housing says that sales of secondhand properties to foreign buyers are down 18 percent. The worst affected regions are Madrid and Castile-La Mancha.

However, some regions have seen increased property sales to foreigners. In Andalusia, sales are up 24 percent. In the Canaries, they are up 73 percent. And in Malaga they are up 48 percent.

According to Dermot McLaughlin of Southern Comfit International, “For some inexplicable reason we are experiencing a month on month spike in our website visitor statistics.” McLaughlin believes that these website visitors are “window shopping”. “We're just waiting for the buyers to come through the doors to carry their dreams forward.” Last year, 200'000 Britons left home to start life in a new country.