Alicante gains popularity with property buyers

Potential buyers of Spanish property are increasingly targeting the city of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca, according to a recent survey.

Over a third of all enquiries made to Kyero.com in the first six months of this year targeted Alicante, compared to 29 percent in 2009, the property portal says. Only 13 percent targeted Malaga, the gateway to the Costa del Sol, which was slightly down on 2009's fugures.

The report was based on 130,000 e-mail inquiries that were generated over the first six months of 2010.

“In all likelihood, this trend of popularity is a reflection of buyers finding property bargains in the provinces where there are the most properties available” according to Kyero managing director Martin Dell. “These top-five provinces are likely to offer buyers the biggest discounts, and better bargains.”

Almost half of the inquiries — 47 percent—were looking for property in the 'inexpensive' €50,000-€150,000 range, according to Kyero’s biannual report.

Despite the downturn of the property market, Dell says the number of visitors to Kyero.com jumped 39 percent from 2009 to 2010, making the report “more representative than ever of foreign buyer activity in the Spanish property market.”