Global Edge research - most popular overseas destinations

Credit Suisse and UBS may think Spain is the worst real estate market in Europe but new Globaledge research data shows it’s more than twice as popular with English-speaking overseas property buyers than France, the next most popular country.

English-language searches for sales property in Spain and its regions accounted for 27.9% of the 1.4 million overseas property searches we analysed in September this year; more than double the number of searches undertaken for property in France, which accounted for 13.1%.

The Globaledge Search Index uses a base of over 20 000 location names to query the Google Keyword Tool and uses a proprietary process to group and categorise the data. The searches analysed are English-language phrases from searches in all geographical regions of the world, excluding countries where English is the first language.

The results show that Spain, Italy and France are the three most popular overseas property destinations and account of over 50% of the volume between them. The Middle East is next with 121 838 searches with Dubai accounting for 70% of the volume.

Fifth is Central & South America with 113 434 searches. Volume is distributed more evenly here with the largest country, Panama only accounting for 22% of the total. It’s a similar story in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe where many countries contribute towards the total. Jamaica (12.9%) and Croatia (17.6%) are the largest countries by volume respectively. Montenegro ranks 22nd, only 1 place below Croatia.