Bad weather turns buyers onto Australia

Harsh weather conditions in the UK in December led to a surge of buyer interest in Australia, according to new figures from Rightmove.co.uk.

For the fourth consecutive month, Australia continued to increase its market share and now ranks as the 4th most popular destination on the UK’s biggest property portal, marginally ahead of Portugal and Italy.

Destinations in the Alps were the other big risers despite a fall overall in searches for property in France. “The start of the ski season helped the Alps regions become two of the top three highest climbers this month, with the Rhone-Alpes up 13.6% and Alps up 15.8%,” said Rightmove’s head of overseas Robin Wilson. “Further down the table, the Pyrenees climbed 9.5% in December and Austria also climbed 8.6%.”

Another big climber was California, up 12%, with interest being driven by a recent visit California TV campaign which featured celebrities Jay Leno, Rob Lowe Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Beckham.

Top 10 most popular countries on Rightmoveoverseas.co.uk in December 2009

Country	% of all searches	% change
Spain	19.37%	-3.63%
France	16.78%	-6.93%
USA	11.91%	0.87%
Australia	6.42%	8.56%
Portugal	6.31%	-4.75%
Italy	6.04%	0.93%
New Zealand	3.65%	6.50%
Cyprus	3.20%	-2.61%
Greece	2.45%	0.59%
Germany	2.37%	0.50%