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Overseas property searchers turn their attention to summer holiday destinations

Cyprus, where prices have been steadily falling and are expected to continue doing so in the wake of the island’s banking crisis, saw searches increase taking it to the seventh most popular destination, above Ireland.

The Portuguese Island of Madeira also saw a substantial increase in interest with searches having risen 105% month on month and Turkey has risen to 11th most popular destination, replacing Germany.

The number of searches for properties in Australia fell, as they usually do at this time of year when searchers think about the summer holiday season ahead in Europe.

Likewise searches were down in alpine regions like Austria and Switzerland as the ski season has now come to an end.
South Africa has fallen out of the top 20 and been replaced by the United Arab Emirates and other destinations seeing an increase in interest include Bulgaria and India.

‘March saw a record 5.4 million searches conducted on Rightmove Overseas. Traditional relocation destinations such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all fell in activity and emigration thoughts turn to summer holidays,’ said Shameem Golamy, head of Rightmove Overseas.

For those looking to move to March was a better month for currencies, according to Charles Purdy, managing director at Smart Currency Exchange.

‘It was a better month for Sterling with small increases against Euro and US Dollar currencies largely driven by the Cyprus debacle which showed just how quickly the currency market can move in a relatively short period of time,’ he explained.

‘The uncertainty of the markets continued to influence private individuals to ‘lock’ into exchange rates to give them some level of certainty. The outlook for Sterling still looks relatively meek with pressure coming from the Euro likely to continue for the foreseeable future and tight trading against the US Dollar,’ he said.

‘Clients would be wise to take advantage of forward contracts to lock into currency rates now for an agreed time in the future. This will provide a guaranteed cost for your currency and allow you to work to a specific budget, which given the uncertainty of Sterling could well be a good thing,’ he added.

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