The overseas property market for Europeans buying abroad has always been dominated by France and Spain. 

When you study the absolute numbers of northern Europeans buying abroad, Spain and France have always led the pack by some distance.

Well not any more.  At least that’s the message coming from English-language overseas property portal, TheMoveChannel.com.  Its monthly rankings of searches on its network of overseas property sites shows US property is now narrowly ahead of both Spain and France.

The US has been moving steadily up the rankings no doubt driven in part by the negative news on the eurozone and the relatively benign press coverage of the US real estate market.

Managing Director Dan Johnson comments: "After climbing three places in as many months, the US continues to attract more and more overseas investors. Florida remains a popular lifestyle choice and with US houses the most affordable they have been in 15 years, the troubled Eurozone just can't compete with the low price of American real estate. It's no coincidence that the US is the only country to rise above the four familiar European markets”.

Like any research, the conclusions of TheMoveChannel.com’s report are only as good as the sample.  The portal has one of the largest audiences in the industry, second only to Rightmove in the UK overseas property market.  However, its audience has always had a bias towards investors who care less about travel time than traditional lifestyle buyers.  

Rightmove’s latest rankings show France top (428,312 searches) Spain second (385,737 searches) and US third (212,309 searches).  US property has increased its share of the market massively over the past 18 months but in terms of the lifestyle overseas property market in the UK, it still have some way to go to knock Spain and France off the top spot.