Many potential UK-based buyers of Spanish property are holding off in making a purchase, firm in the belief that they are best waiting until sterling has recovered at least some of its lost ground against the euro.

Of course, this makes sense. Why buy something now, when you can get it for 20% less in 6 or 12 months time?

But one interesting statistic may make those UK based buyers sit up and take notice. As one of the leading Spanish property portals, we have noticed increasing volumes of enquiries during the last 6 months – strange when you think of the financial mess everyone is supposed to be in. I guess this means that the purchase of a Spanish property is still on the agenda for plenty of people, particularly as the prices have come down and started to look so attractive. Although around 70% of our enquiries eminate from UK based clients, 70% of the actual sales volume can be attributed to non-UK buyers. And in the vast majority of cases, these buyers are from the eurozone.

Yes, that´s right, although we are spending most of our time on the phone, sending information to, and touring British clients, our time is actually spent more productively (according to the sales figures!) with the Belgians, the Dutch, the Spanish and the Irish.

These are the buyers that are snapping up the bargains whilst all of us Brits sit and wait for the pound to rally. And trust me, these eurozone buyers know exactly what they are doing. With many British vendors here in Spain able to heavily discount their property prices due to the tumbling pound, the Europeans are targeting these vendors for the best deals. It´s a win-win situation. The buyers are purchasing with a strong currency, while the vendors repatriate the sales proceeds back to the UK, and get a whole load more pounds for their euros! Everybody´s happy.

I have 2 concerns for the Brits who are looking to invest in Spanish property: firstly, that we will see fewer and fewer genuine, well located Spanish property bargains as the truly distressed stock gets snapped up and the economic recovery commences….and secondly, that once sterling does start to rise in value against the euro, the British vendors here in Spain will be far more inclined to hold firm on their prices, even to the point of raising the prices to compensate for the stronger sterling euro exchange rate.

It´s all a bit of a conundrum. At the moment, you really want to be a Belgian buying a distressed property from a Brit here in Spain. But who is to say that this situation won´t do an about-turn in the next 12 months? Watch this space.