Find a second home in Spain - quickly 

If you'd like to buy a property in southern Spain but don't know which area to choose, step right this way. We asked Zoe Dare Hall to devise a tour hitting all the hotspots - and giving you a great holiday en route.

In summer, every second of every day a British person boards a plane to Spain. We love the place. We can't get enough of it. It's our number one destination for foreign property, accounting for 30 per cent of the overseas holiday home market.

After our rain-sodden summer, the idea that global warming would boost second homes in the UK will surely swiftly be abandoned.

Spain still offers the enduring attractions of an appealing climate, cheap flights, great quality of life and widely-spoken English, especially on the two coasts (Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol) that attract two-thirds of Britons who buy there.

Investors may have the jitters after reports of a Spanish property crash. Prices which rose by 200 per cent in a decade have fallen back by 1.2 per cent over the summer, with a slump predicted in overdeveloped parts such as the Costa Blanca.

But Spain is largely a lifestyle destination anyway: you don't buy there to make a fortune overnight. In any case, its property market is not one homogeneous whole, but an assortment of regional markets, with some faring well (Mallorca, Costa de la Luz), some eternally desirable (Barcelona, Marbella), and others up-and-coming (Castellón, Asturias).

Even the Costa del Sol is being turned around as Marbella's new mayor restores its reputation and cleans up the planning process.

With so many areas to choose from, the problem is deciding which is right for you. So we've devised the perfect property-finding holiday: six areas that you can visit in one three-week vacation, giving you the chance to tour the mainland's best-known and emerging hotspots. We have suggested the best places to stop, plus contact details for the properties you might wish to see.

The route: fly Ryanair to Reus in Tarragona (or easyJet or Monarch to Barcelona) and head south, winding your way for 800 miles along the Mediterranean coast towards Cádiz.

Those preferring to travel by train can do it easily from Cataluña to Murcia, but crossing southern Spain becomes problematic given the Costa del Sol's curious lack of a railway, so a hire car is the best bet. It can be done almost entirely on one road, the N340. Then simply drop your car off at Jerez airport and catch a budget flight home.

 

Continuance: Telegraph.co.uk