Spanish Estate Agents

Nowadays, more and more expat families are looking to buy property in the less touristy parts of Spain – the “real Spain” – places where they can immerse themselves in the local culture and live the Spanish way of life.

They’re looking for somewhere ideally with little or no interest to other overseas buyers – Spain all to themselves.

The problem is everyone now wants these types of locations so instead of moving into ‘real’ Spain, overseas buyers end up creating and living in foreigners’ ghettoes. Take Monda, Coin and Alhaurin el Grande in Malaga, for example. In these traditional Spanish rural villages, English is now almost as widely spoken as Spanish.

When wealthy overseas property buyers come to Spain, the locals are happy to sell their place at an often significant profit and move into a shiny new urbanisation down the road.

So you sell up, move all the way to what has to be the real Spain – inland, rural, surrounded by goats, pigs, bulls and horses – only to find that your next door neighbour is from Birmingham.

But still the dream exists. Settling in Spain, living that dream lifestyle of tapas, siestas, flamenco, sunshine and no stress…turning that dilapidated rustic property into your own version of Iberian “chic”… One day, becoming as Spanish as the Spanish.

Featured Location – Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura is the second largest of the Canary Islands, located just 100 kilometers off the coast of North Africa.

It’s one of the last remaining Spanish paradise isles – sparsely populated, untouched, unspoilt, and free of crass commercialism and overdevelopment.

The island is home to 152 of the longest beaches in the archipelago. There are 50 kilometers of fine, white sandy beach and 25 kilometers of black volcanic shingle.

Fuerteventura is widely regarded as having some of the best beaches in the Spain – endless stretches of fine white sand bathed by pristine turquoise waters that stay warm all year long. It’s a paradise for sun, beach and water sports fans.

The large winter swells and summer trade winds create excellent wind and wave conditions, making Fuerteventura a year-round surfers’ paradise. It’s also a very popular location for sailing, scuba diving and big game fishing. Whales, dolphins, marlin and turtles are all common sights in these clear blue waters.

Many believe that Fuerteventura is the oldest of the Canary Islands. Its strange volcanic form was born out of a series of eruptions thousands and thousands of years ago.

Most of the inland areas on Fuerteventura are made up of lavascapes and volcanic mountains as well as large protected plains. Although the island looks highly volcanic, the last activity took place over 4,000 years ago.

If you’re looking for somewhere with endless sunshine, year round warmth, stunning deserted beaches, a good quality of life and (as of yet) no mass tourism, Fuerteventura is well worth considering.

Investing in Fuerteventura
Residential and commercial properties, on this paradise island, are seeing great returns through strong property appreciation.

Many UK and Irish holidaymakers are now choosing to extend their yearly two-week vacation on a more permanent basis. Making the permanent move to Fuerteventura is becoming an increasingly popular option and with all it has to offer, why not.

The growing numbers of visitors who are investing in many of the off plan new developments, residential and commercial properties will have a knock-on effect of pushing the property prices up, creating a strong return for investors.

Prices are still low but expected to escalate. If your considering Fuerteventura, now is the best time to make a move, before it’s too late. Click here for the latest Fuerteventura Property for Sale

If you’re looking for that dream property for sale in the Canary Islands, one of the best ways to find it is to go online. Casa Quest is where you’ll find the largest and most varied selection of properties for sale in Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria.

It also provides local information about the individual islands, links to legal advice, articles and information about mortgages and finance. It was set up by a retired British medical practitioner, (Dr Paul Johnson) in an attempt to make buying and selling property in the Canary Islands easier.

Up and running since 2003, Casa Quest has everything you need to know about living or investing in the Canary Islands.

Canary Island Lifestyle – Diving off La Palma

La Palma is the largest of the western Canary Islands and has perfect water temperatures for scuba diving all year round. During the summer months water temperatures get up to a very cosy 25°C while in winter they rarely drop below a comfortable 18°C.

This is ocean diving. You won’t see the same ranges of colours that you’d see in say, the Red Sea but the visibility is excellent and the underwater landscape is spectacular.

La Palma is volcanic in origin and this makes for a fascinating underwater experience – one of the major highlights of diving here. Along with the many caves and chimneys, you can explore walls, grottos, canyons and tunnels.

You’ll see all kinds of stunning marine life living down here; everything from schooling fish, barracudas, groupers and trompet-fish to nudibranches, sea hares, scorpion fish and flounders. If you’re lucky you might even see an eagle ray or possibly even a manta ray or better still, a friendly turtle!

One of the best places to go diving on Gran Canaria is definitely Los Cancajos. The reef is massive and provides a broad range of diving options for both beginners and advanced. Most of the dives here don’t even require a boat. You can get to some of the best from the shore with minimum exertion. Everything’s very close.

Night diving is quite popular here, especially with a fool moon. There’s some fascinating bioluminescence to be seen along the reef.

Property for Sale
If you click onto http://www.casaquest.com/, you’ll see hundreds of properties right throughout the archipelago, with pictures, descriptions, locations and prices. Properties are regularly updated to ensure accuracy.

If you want more information about a specific property you can simply send an email directly to the real estate agent representing that property.

You can also set up your own Casa Quest Casa property portfolio. This is basically a list of favourite properties that you can use to help narrow down the list of vast available properties. You can then decide which are the most relevant properties before contacting the agent or making an appointment to see the properties.

Here’s just a few random examples from the Casa Quest (http://www.casaquest.com) site…

Studio in Playa Del Ingles, Gran Canaria
Studio apartment in the riu waikki hotel in the centre of Playa del Ingles. Excellent rental income investment.
Price: €70.000 EUR

Studio in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria
The studio is located in a very well kept complex with reception, supermarket, pool/bar, restaurant, pub, etc. It is under a tourist rental system.
Price: €75.800 EUR

3 Bed Apartment in Las Americas, Tenerife
Extremely popular tourist complex by the sea in central Las Americas. Outstanding penthouse with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, fitted independent kitchen and the most amazing views.
Price: €640.000 EUR
£426.666 GBP

If your considering packing up, leaving the “doom and gloom” and moving to the Canary Island sunshine, Casa Quest can help. It’s an information site whose sole aim is to provide impartial information about living (and investing) in either Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura or Gran Canaria.

Nowadays, one of the fastest and easiest ways to find property is to go online. Freedom4sale deals with property for sale in the Canary Islands, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, in particular. It’s a free magazine and website that works with some of the best English-speaking estate agents on the archipelago.

Online you can search through a wide range of properties throughout mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. You can also search properties via a certain estate agent.

Other online feature include; a property Forum – where you can discuss property issues with other website members; information on investment property; a newsletter; property articles; local information; property statistics; and mortgage & finance information.

Featured Article – Buy-To-Let Investments
A recent article by Lee Grandin of Landlord Mortgages, comments that in the UK, “People looking to make a success of buy-to-let will have to be in it for the long term, with rental yield the bottom line and the possibility of capital appreciation an extra something special”.

Buy-to-let has been a popular and successful investment option (both in the UK and Spain) over the past few years. Basically it involve buying a property and renting it out as soon as possible, letting the rent cover the cost of your mortgage.

Nowadays however, new developments can be saturated with buy-to-let investors, and when the properties do eventually come on the market (at the same time) they often drive the rental yields down.

What buy-to-let investors need to determine before they take “the plunge” is how much rental income can this property is likely to guarantee and for what period of time.

Handy tips
Nowadays, research is the only way to try and ascertain whether a buy to let investment in a particular area will succeed. It’s absolutely essential for any buy-to-let investor to keep a keen eye on the locations that they are interested in.

If you’re investing abroad it might be impractical to go and live there just to get to know the place. You can however go online and access a wealth of information from most community websites about your chosen location.

Asking the seller for information about the property and surrounding area is often pointless, as they’ll invariably point out the good points and conveniently forget the bad.

The same goes for letting agents. Don’t pay to much attention to promises of high rental yields. Try and speak to the tenants and find out how much people generally pay in that area.

Freedom4sale Online Account
If you’re considering buying a property anywhere on Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote or Gran Canaria or want information about upcoming markets, you should set up your own freedom property account.

With this you can keep track of the properties you are most interested in, stay updated with the latest properties coming on to the market and much more.

When you are looking to buy property in the Canary Islands, whether that´s Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma, you need to be able to search with the minimum of fuss and achieve the best results for your criteria.  That´s where a Property Portal like www.canaryproperty.com and their feedback blog site www.canarypropertyforsale.com come into the fore.  The easy to use search facility on this portal makes buying a property in the Canary Islands  as easy as ABC!

To advertise on Canary Property contact Gary on info@canaryproperty.com

Casa Quest is an information site displaying the largest and most varied selection of property for sale in the Canary Islands (Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria). This unique website has thousands of properties from the island’s most reputable and well-established estate agents.

Apart from providing access to a vast array of properties, Casa Quest also provides links to legal advice, online articles, mortgage and finance specialists etc.

Featured Article – “Overseas Property Easier Than Ever”

“Some of the most popular vacation and resort destinations where people purchase overseas homes and property to let are now served by international airports and can be reached in just a couple of hours, at most”There are now numerous discount airlines offering some fantastic deals to places you’d once have paid an arm and a leg to get to.The increase in discount airlines and airfares has made buying a property abroad much easier. The number of flights appears to be increasing all the time as the costs continue to decrease. Wherever you want to invest, getting there is cheaper than ever.

Money Saving
Jet2.com saves money by operating out of smaller UK airports and avoiding the high cost and traffic issues they’d have if they flew out of London’s airports. This is one of ways they can charge such amazing fares. Jet2.com now operates from; Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle, Blackpool, Belfast and Edinburgh.

With over 10,000 estate agent properties in their magazine and online, Freedom4sale is the number one property magazine and web site portal for Spain and the Canary Islands.

It’s an absolute must for anyone looking for properties in mainland Spain, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.

The Website & Magazine (www.freedom4sale.com)
Online you’ll find a specific property search function, where you can search through a massive amount of properties right throughout mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. You can also search properties via a certain estate agent.

Since the beginning (over seven years ago) Freedom4sale has built up a wealth of information about property in the Canary Islands, including; maps, buying advice and local information.

They’ve recently branched out and now include other “hot” investment areas around the globe, both in the magazine and online.

Emerging markets
As the world’s beaches are becoming more and more congested, people are looking further a field for their dream home in the sun.

Recently, British estate agents have begun marketing beachside developments in places like Cape Verde, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Belize, Brazil, Réunion and even Nicaragua. But some traditionalists, most British buyers in fact, continue to look to more established locations like Spain, the south of France and the Greek Islands.

Paradise found (In Europe)
The Algarve, in Portugal, is a popular choice for buyers on a normal budget. Here, £300,000 will buy you a place fit for a king. This area is less densely developed than Spain but has the same climate, a very sophisticated infrastructure and some truly amazing beaches. Properties are well built and the government has limited the number and scale of new developments.

Spain and the Canary Islands still have a massive range of coastal properties available. On the mainland however, prices have dropped by as much as 20% from their 2006 highs, whereas on the Canary Islands prices still appear to be rising. Many investors are pulling out of the mainland and now investing in the Canary Islands.

Overdevelopment along coastal areas has been one of Spain’s major problems. It’s not uncommon for people to buy front-line apartments with a glorious sea views one year only to discover a new development built in front of it the next year.

Cyprus also has a large volume of coastal properties and they’re going incredibly cheap. For a large house or villa in the Paphos and Limassol area you’d pay as little as £150,000.

Another area where you can find your dream villa at real prices is Sardinia. This is one of Europe’s best-kept secrets, but not for long! In Costa Paradiso, in the northwest of the island, you’ll find three and four bedroom villas for just £250,000. For one and two bedroom flats, prices start at as little as £90,000.

Online Membership
If you’re serious about investing in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote or Gran Canaria you should set up your own freedom4sale property account. With this you’ll be able to keep track of the properties you are most interested in, stay updated with the latest properties coming onto the market and much much more.