Interest In Portugal Growing

As the Spanish market has taken a few hits in recent times, many investors have been looking around for alternatives. While some have found new places to go to in Spain and some have ventured into the unknown territory of emerging markets, others have found the country next door to be of great interest.nnEvidence of this growing interest has emerged from the moveichannel.com, which has noted that the country has moved rapidly up its "top of the props" chart of the most popular property hostpots. Last month, the site announced this week, the country surged into the top ten for the most popular locations for enquiries to sit in fifth spot. nnThe site noted not only that Portugal saw good growth in 2007, but that it has been predicted to see values rise by 12 per cent in 2008, a welcome figure at a time when so many markets are talking of slumps and corrections. nnFurthermore, the sit added, double tax arrangements between Portugal and Britain made the legal and tax side of investing in the country fairly easy. nnWith the country being described by Mark Bowen, the UK sales director for property firm Profile Europe, as being "on the crest of a wave", now may seem a very good time to join the interested parties. nnThe kind of Portugal property which may interest an investor would be a home such as a stone cottage located near the world heritage town of Tomar, featured this week in Homes Worldwide. Such attractive properties, which buy-to-let investors could let to those seeking a place with ambience and character rather than simply a short walk to the nearest beach, are highly affordable. The cottage in question, with three bedrooms, has an asking price of £154,000. nnAlternatively, there are always old buildings which can be bought cheaply and then renovated, another local stone property consisting of two old country homes with annexes and surrounding land being another featured on the site for less than £28,000. nnOf course, the popular tourist resorts in Portugal property do play a major part in the property industry, with the obvious buy-to-let holiday home potential these possess. Propertyshowrooms.com suggested recently that this was unlikely to stop soon, not least as a new airport north of the Tagus River at Ato, which was allegedly going to draw tourists away from the Algarve's Silver Coast, is due to be built further south at Alcochete. This, said Propertyshowrooms.com's business manager Peter Mindehall, would not draw tourists away from the Algarve as it was the same distance from the Silver Coast as Lisbon's existing airport. nnIn addition, he said: "The Algarve has for a long time been a favourite of investors because of the fantastic rental yields that can be achieved due to Portugal having a year round rental market. This has mainly been made up of European and American travellers coming over for Portugal's spectacular championship golf courses and beautiful scenery." nnSo for those who want to look at investing a country lots of people are interested in, Portugal looks like it first the bill, with the Algarve fitting it particularly well. nnIn today's world Property investment is an excellent investment option especially investment in UK