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101 most popular overseas property destinations

Matching buyers with properties is the mainstay of any estate agency business. A good domestic agent will know the types of properties local people are demanding and canvass instructions in the areas that meet the need. It’s more difficult with overseas property. The market is more disparate and it’s difficult to know if customer feedback is representative of true demand.

Tracking consumer demand

Following the media has always been a good way of gauging up-coming demand and internet statistics can also provide useful insights, particularly data from large portals like Rightmove.co.uk. However, information from search engine sources outside the US has always been difficult to interpret. That is, until now.

WordTracker, the market leading keyword analysis tool in the US, now has a UK data set which in time could become one of the best sources of consumer data on UK-based overseas property buyers. With 200,000 property searches it is still small but numbers are building rapidly and they plan an independent audit in the summer.

We’ve spent considerable time analysing data from property searches over the last 100 days to provide insights into consumer search behaviour and by implication demand for overseas property. See data and methodology

The Brits still love Spain

Searches for Spain and regions and towns within it dominate the results. Five out of the top ten most popular locations are Spanish and the top 103 locations are dotted with Spanish towns and coastal names. If you sell overseas property in Spain, it maybe worth sourcing partners in these places if you haven’t already.  

Although the obvious locations of Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol are the most popular Spanish regions, the popularity of the Canary Islands is perhaps the most interesting finding. There is considerable search volume even at local level, with Costa Teguise (Lanzarote), Palm Mar (Tenerife) and Caleta de Fuste (Fuerteventura) all appearing in the list.   

France and Italy lag behind

Although France is the second most popular search location, there is less of a tail in terms of towns and regions than in Spain. Brittany is the most popular followed by the French Alps, Dordogne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Charente and the ski resorts of Chamonix, Courchevel and Meribel.

Italy comes only 21st in terms of popular searches and has an even shorter tail with only Umbria, Apulia and Le Marche making it into the list. Tuscany is notable by its absence. This may be due to the perception of high prices putting buyers off searching there.

Emerging markets

Unsurprisingly Bulgaria and Dubai both feature in the top ten. However, Bansko and Sofia are the only locations in either region that appear further down the list, which probably reflects limited consumer knowledge of areas within Bulgaria and the UAE.  

Morocco is the next emerging market in the list, closely followed by Prague. News of great mortgage offers in the Czech Republic (up to 100% LTV) has obviously filtered through to the general public and is especially pertinent given the state of most European mortgage markets.  

Brazil is next, followed by Romania and Slovakia. Interestingly, Egypt lags behind in 57th place, well below the emerging destination mentioned above. This suggests the African state is either more of a niche market than many believe or news of its potential hasn’t yet filtered down to the public.

Spotting niche opportunities

Although it’s interesting to compare geographical areas, the data does not aggregate regions to give definitive totals within each country. Other sources, like Rightmove.co.uk statistics, are better at doing this.

The main benefit of this list comes in spotting niche geographical demand. It could be invaluable as a starting point for sourcing developments and partners, for example. The further down the list you go, the more interesting it becomes. We’ll be publishing this data on a regular basis to help you keep track changing consumer requirements. If you haven’t already, sign up to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.

101 most popular property-related searches on UK search engines

Position	Region	Share of property-related searches
1	Spain	10.84%
2	France	4.58%
3	Bulgaria	3.65%
4	Cyprus	3.37%
5	Costa Blanca	2.42%
6	Turkey	2.24%
7	Dubai	1.87%
8	Tenerife	1.77%
9	Murcia	1.42%
10	Mallorca/Majorca	0.90%
11	Marbella	0.88%
12	Torrevieja	0.86%
13	Morocco	0.85%
14	Portugal	0.78%
15	Fuerteventura	0.77%
16	Florida	0.73%
17	Villamartin	0.72%
18	Costa Almeria	0.65%
19	Prague	0.63%
20	Gran Canaria	0.59%
21	Italy	0.58%
22	Brazil	0.56%
23	Costa del Sol	0.56%
24	Cape Verde	0.52%
25	Crete	0.43%
26	Algarve	0.41%
27	Lanzarote	0.40%
28	Valencia	0.38%
29	Limousin	0.38%
30	Czech Republic	0.34%
31	Costa Calida	0.33%
32	Romania	0.28%
33	Marrakesh	0.27%
34	Greece	0.25%
35	Croatia	0.24%
36	Brittany	0.17%
37	Caleta de Fuste	0.16%
38	Corralejo	0.16%
39	Madeira	0.16%
40	Costa Teguise	0.16%
41	French Alps	0.13%
42	Javea	0.12%
43	Slovakia	0.12%
44	Jalon	0.12%
45	Caribbean	0.11%
46	Barbados	0.10%
47	New Zealand	0.10%
48	Nerja	0.10%
49	Bansko	0.10%
50	Corfu	0.10%
51	Andalucia	0.10%
52	Dordogne	0.09%
53	Roquetas	0.09%
54	Montenegro	0.09%
55	Goa	0.08%
56	Egypt	0.08%
57	Switzerland	0.08%
58	Umbria	0.08%
59	Mexico	0.08%
60	Thailand	0.08%
61	Extremadura	0.08%
62	Palm Mar	0.07%
63	Languedoc Roussillon	0.06%
64	Sofia	0.06%
65	Charente	0.06%
66	French Riviera	0.06%
67	Paphos	0.05%
68	Savoie	0.05%
69	Kanpur	0.05%
70	Mijas Pueblo	0.05%
71	Puglia/Apulia	0.05%
72	Australia	0.04%
73	Chamonix	0.04%
74	Le Marche	0.04%
75	Ibiza	0.04%
76	Moraira	0.04%
77	Berlin	0.04%
78	Mazarron	0.04%
79	Playa del Carmen	0.04%
80	South of France	0.04%
81	Larnaca	0.04%
82	Malta	0.04%
83	Provence	0.04%
84	Courchevel	0.04%
85	Latvia	0.04%
86	Hungary	0.03%
87	Meribel	0.03%
88	South Africa	0.03%
89	Canada	0.03%
90	Costa de la Luz	0.03%
91	Malaga	0.03%
92	Dominican Republic	0.03%
93	South West France	0.03%
94	Cape Town	0.03%
95	La Manga	0.03%
96	Calabria	0.03%
97	Menorca	0.03%
98	Poitou	0.03%
99	Bordeaux	0.03%
100	Axarquia	0.03%
101	Estonia	0.03%

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User Comments

I hope this overseas property destination could help me to market the Century Properties Group that developing, managing and marketing developments int the Philippines. Thank you so much Rubylyn R.Salvosa

Rubylyn R. Salvosa, Century Properties Group