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Spain has been and still is on the top list of foreigners when it comes to buy a property and/or spend holidays. Not surprising as the country offers a beautiful scenery; white sand beaches and spectacular mountains, fantastic weather, good food, cultural live, and fantastic for sports as golf, water sports as well as winter sports. Not to mention the great infrastructure in roads, airports, offering regular flights to many important cities in Europe.

Despite the Spanish property slow down and weakening of the market the Spanish economy is still growing and the unemployment rates are the lowest since 1978 and in this market, bad news for sellers are good news for buyers when looking for long-term investment. Investors have to proceed with caution but good opportunities are emerging and the main attractions that have made thousands of foreigners come to Spain remain the same.

Real Estate investment in Costa del Sol is still growing and investments have been crowned with strong revaluation superior to the global yields of stock markets and other financial assets.

Inspite of IMF, The Economist and the OECD the real estate investment reaches in some provinces, for example in Málaga, a 20% revaluation.

Costa del Sol is a consolidated and solid area comparing to its sister coasts (Costa Blanca, Costa Cálida, etc …). Luxurious hotels located in Marbella and surrounding still constitute a synonymous of exclusivity, luxury and prestige that has been persisting during many years.

Although the political and city planning of the zone has had a logical repercussion in this segment of the market, with a price descend of 3.7%. The Málaga airport is the biggest and busiest airport in Andalucia and real estate still is intense in the area.

In March, 192,913 cheap flight passengers arrived at Málaga Airport, an increase of 19.9 percent on the previous year, according to figures just released by the Institute of Tourism Studies (IET).

In the first tree months of the year, 468,727 passengers arrived in Málaga on budget flights, an increase of just over 16 per cent on the first quarter of 2006.

Easyjet uses Málaga Airport as its primary destination in Spain, with the Costa del Sol attracting 22 per cent of its budget travellers. RyanAir and Air Berlin are also important budget airlines for Málaga Airport, which is at present undergoing a huge multimillion-euro development programme.

Despite the huge number of budget passengers using Málaga, in a league table of cheap flight statistics, the figures only place it third in Spain, falling behind Palma de Mallorca with 512,095 passengers in the first three months of this year, followed by Barcelona with 468,727.

The three 18-hole golf courses, par 3 course and the David Leadbetter Academy will benefit from this new maintenance plan. The consultants have already prepared the plan and its implementation should see improvements to all aspects of the courses within months.

Turfgrass Consultancy Ltd is an Irish-based golf course company specialising in the high-end of the market of European golf course development and project management. Managing Director, John Clarking says the new plan will result in improvements in the condition and presentation of the courses at La Cala golf resort. "We will implement summer and winter programmes as well as a water management scheme. Specifically, we aim to improve the speed, consistency and smoothness of the greens. Tee boxes will be conditioned and the bunkers will receive maintenance and styling work. You will see big benefits within six months and thereafter the improvements will be more gradual". Turfgrass consultancy currently deals with more that 50 projects in Europe in addition to other work for the USA and Caribbean.

Life as we know it on the Costa del Sol is about to change, and for the better, with the launch in March 07 of the Costa's own TV Channel transmitting 16 hours per day via the Sky Digital network to up to 30 million viewers in the UK and Ireland.

Living in Spain TV will be a local community channel depicting life in Spain as it really is, featuring real life stories of many of the million or so expats who have relocated in Spain, most of whom have a story to tell. It will provide a voice for this ever increasing expat community not only throughout Andalusia and Spain but throughout the whole of Europe.

The state of the art outside broadcasting unit is busy every day filming throughout Andalusia. Programmes will not only be entertaining but also informative - whether you want to buy a property, obtain a mortgage, set up a business, or buy a car, Living in Spain TV will tell you how. While overseas viewers can sample the culture, discover the lifestyle or simple view a dream of the day the too will take the plunge.

The average price of the new house in Spanish coasts reached 2.488 euros by constructed square meter in 2006, which supposes an increase of 11.4% with respect to the previous report, according to Spanish Taxation Office. The most expensive properties, with average prices superior to the 3,000 euros by square meter, are in Barcelona (4,192 euros/m² San Sebastián (3,807 euros/m²), Sitges (3,125 euros/m²) and Casteldefels (3,029 euros/m²).

The greater property price increases took place in those areas where the cost by square meter was relatively low. It is the case of Roda de Barà, that had a spectacular increase of 28.5% until reaching the 2,127 euros by square meter in the last registered twelve months, followed by Deltebere, with an increase of 27.6% and of Amposta, with an increase of 25.3% experienced.

In Andalusia, Marbella continues being the most expensive area of Costa del Sol, with an average price by square meter constructed of 2,424 euros and an increase of 8.1% in 2006.

Spanish property construction markets will finish the year of 2006 with an increase of 5.8%, slightly superior to the one of 2005 and obviously very substantial", according to Mr. Fontana, the Unit of Economic Prospectiva of the ITeC.

The activity of the residential construction in Spain will be reduced by 2.5% in 2008, which supposes the first reduction of the sector after 12 years of uninterrupted growth, according to the data of Euroconstruct. In this way, the deceleration of the sector is "postponed" to 2008, but it continues being "inevitable", since "the bonanza cannot extend by always". Thus, the growth that will register 2007 will not fall noticeably.

Nevertheless, Fontana explained that "the Spanish situation has a certain parallelism with the European", where 2006 also has been "a good" year whereas the production will begin to decrease in the next years. Fontana also declared that there are no "serious consequences" for the Spanish economy that can entail the stagnation of the property construction, since the experience of other countries, like the United Kingdom, demonstrates that "the life is possible beyond the boom".

Spanish property price will continue rising although in a controlled way. The experts assured that, although the increase of the price of the house in Spain will turn around 8% in the next year, the sector will undergo a smooth deceleration during 2007.

In addition, this moderation of the price of the property will cause a diminution of the purchase of houses with investing aims, and on the contrary it will favor the demand by replacement, that is to say, families who accede to buy a second home or to move permanently with the objective to look for more space and a better quality of living.

There are so many choices for the property buyer that deciding upon a destination, let alone a home, could prove to be unnecessarily exhaustive. Not so, according to a recent study by foreign currency experts, which has revealed that Spain remains rooted at the top of the tree when it comes to looking for a second home destination among Britons.

Figures from the study have shown that 46% if those surveyed placed Spain as their most preferred destination. Spain's warm climate was cited as its main draw.

Interestingly, the results revealed that most Britons rank weather and lifestyle as more important than making a profit when investing in a home overseas. This may be a reflection of increased prosperity in the UK, as many Britons consider a second home in the sun as something more that a mere investment - it is viewed as a luxury, necessitated by their desire to escape the UK rat race at every giving opportunity.

The Town Hall of Mijas is going to start the refurbishment of the sea promenade in La Cala with the objective to embellish it and to improve the illumination. This initiative counts on an investment of 86,000 euros, of which 51,000 euros will be contributed by the Council of Tourism and the Feder Fonds.

50 lampposts are going to be placed. The sea promenade will be decorated with ornamental plants to improve its surroundings.

According to a report of Barclays Bank in Spain, most of the second home Spanish property owners are from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and France. The report also estimates that the 117,000 houses reached in 2005, will have a maintained growth until the estimated 150,000 houses in 2010.

Also, seven of every ten British citizens interested in buying a house abroad use Internet as an informational channel.

Spanish real estate industry promotes golf developments as the demand for golf properties have tripled from 2001 to 2005. In the last years the demand and the development for property units on golf courses has significantly increased and golf resorts are becoming very popular. By the end of 2005, 39.000 golf properties were sold with a value of approximately 10.500 million euros.

Murcia and Andalucía are the most demanded areas. The national and foreign increase of golf players, the favourable economic situation in Spain and the Spanish improvements within the European Union, the reduced types of interest, the climatic conditions and the improvements in infrastructures carried out in the last years, are some of the factors that explain the increasing demand for golf property in Spain.

The forecast for this new market is very favourable, between 2006 and 2010, 150 golf courses could be opened.