Welcome to the March edition of the Tenerife Property Shop Newsletter, the beaches are busy and suntan lotion is selling fast. As ever we have lots of interesting information with some great tips on buying in the first article `How to play the field... and still be faithful´, and if investment is on your mind, then we give readers an opportunity to be at the top of the list and bag a property on the long awaited best front line development in Golf del Sur. The property market has been undergoing some fascinating developments, and we´ve reprinted an extraordinarily incisive article, courtesy of one of the newspapers here. A quick scour of the local news brings you a few titbits from the island and of course you´ll find out about the best bargains, new instructions and resale investments that we´ve come across this month. Enjoy!

This month we´re going to let you into a secret. If you´re considering purchasing a property, then the few minutes that you will spend reading this article will protect your money, save you time and safely steer you through a minefield of false promises, potential heartache and bitter disappointment. You think I´m exaggerating? I´ve seen it with my own eyes.

So what is this magical secret? It´s simple: ESTATE AGENTS IN TENERIFE SHARE PROPERTIES. `Big deal!´ I hear you say. `What difference does that make to me?´

Well, let´s illustrate this with a couple of recent examples that have occurred in the very recent past. The first is a retiring couple who wanted to buy an apartment to spend a few months of their year in. They read the newspapers, looked at the adverts, saw a property they liked and viewed it with a small agent. At the same time they also saw another property in the adverts with a large estate agent whose credentials were excellent and whose after sales service was impeccable. They liked the first property, but understandably, they weren´t that comfortable with parting with a sizeable deposit to the smaller agent. The small agent had no department dedicated to contracting and even advised them not to use a lawyer. Enough to set off anybody´s alarm bells. The larger agent commiserated with the couple, they could have arranged to show the property by working with the smaller agent, but now the couple had seen it already, there was nothing to be done. If they wanted the property, they had to go through the smaller agent. It was a shambles. There were hidden `charges´ that they had to pay, they later discovered that services hadn´t been changed to their name, and in the end, a few months after they had acquired the property they had to pay out again for a gestoria to clear up the mess. Months of stress and forking out money repeatedly could have all been avoided if they had called the larger agent first.

Another example involves a small agent who refused to give a client´s deposit back when, through no fault of their own, the sale fell through. A third example... actually, I could fill the whole issue up with examples and still have more left over. You must be starting to get the picture by now.

The basic point is that you should first select the agent. Be careful. Choose one that has been established for a long time (be careful with this, because some brand new agents will add up everyone´s experience in the company (probably including the cleaner´s and claim they have a `Total of 30 years experience in estate agency´). Look for third party recommendation. Awards from industry peers are one good sign, but ask around too. Make sure they carry Professional Indemnity Insurance. At the end of the day, that´s your only sure protection. If anyone tells you that you don´t need a lawyer, run a mile.

When you have selected the right agent who you are confident is going to process the sale correctly, then talk to them about any properties you might have seen in adverts and on the internet. Let them do the work for you. It won´t cost you any more to see another agents´ properties through the agent of your choice, the purchase price will remain the same. What it will do is save you time and give you peace of mind.

One of the talking points around Golf del Sur for a long time has been, `What´s going to be happening with that big plot of land on the front line to the ocean?´ Well, the speculation and gossip will soon all become clear... watch this space! The plot in question sits beside the prestigious El Nautico development and is the largest in the area. It occupies the best possible position, right on the front line to the ocean, and views are going to be spectacular. There will be a mixture of units available, but we are still sworn to secrecy about the specific details.

Investors will know, from past experience, that the best units in any development will get snapped up quickly. Naturally, the prime locations will attract the best resale value and will spend the least time on the market looking for a buyer. The secret is to get in first.

We´re offering newsletter subscribers the chance to do just that, and be right at the front of the queue. The minute the gag comes off us, an email will go out to you containing all the information you´ll need to know to make your decision. All you need to do is tell us to put you on the pre-launch list, and keep an eye on your inbox!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE THIS INFORMATION PLEASE EMAIL YOUR NAME AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS TO This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and ask to be placed on the GDS FRONTLINE PRE-LAUNCH list.

Ask five people in Tenerife what the property market is doing at the moment and you´ll get five different answers. Some of the smaller agents are full of doom and gloom, whereas others (possibly with a sprinkling of bravado) report new buyers registering in their droves. The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle. The confusion has come about through a variety of factors, some due to the shortcomings of estate agents, but others are attributable to a general misconception in the marketplace that is proving to be short lived.

Agents who are reporting that the market is very quiet are those who have pulled back their marketing. Rob Carless, Managing Director of Sun4free.com, the internet property portal specialising in Tenerife, told us, `It is hardly surprising. Waiting for passing trade and playing sudoku with half an eye at a phone that never rings and a computer that never gets emails would give anyone a depressed perception of the market.´

But despite this, consumer confidence did drop during 2006, affecting the demand for property. Without understanding the reasons behind this lull in demand, many vendors panicked, thinking that this might be the beginning of a longer quiet time, and lowered their asking prices. But what was really behind the blip in demand was a basic misconception shared by many potential buyers and not recognised by estate agents who had become decidedly nervous about what the future might bring.

The misconception was a basic confusion between Tenerife and the mainland, and specifically the Costas. A short summary of recent goings on in the Spanish property market will start to make it all clear. There has been a massive amount of building along the coastlines of Spain, and despite warnings from the IMF, dire predictions in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Economist and even pessimistic reports from Spain´s own Banks and Government, the pace of building continues unabated. This has caused a glut on the market and vendors are finding it tough to sell, with properties sometimes spending years on the market. Combine this with corruption scandals in Marbella, land grab exposés in Valencia and consumer confidence in the market became further eroded. Prices on the mainland have almost stagnated. In contrast, Tenerife has limited building applications, the island authorities voted in a moratorium on touristic building in 2001, and this has now been extended. But although Tenerife has experienced no such greed inspired feeding frenzy by developers, it is still part of Spain and for a while in 2006 it was tarred with the same brush.

The logic of what is really happening on Tenerife is inescapable. The more tourists we have, the more properties get bought. And Tenerife has been breaking all its own visitor records throughout 2006. In fact, with 42,000 homes in the south owned by the British (2004 estimate), the property market in Tenerife´s southern costas actually works in closer synchronisation with the British and Irish property markets than mainland Spain. Basically, the more money that these two nations have made from selling their own homes, the more they spend here on property. It´s a direct correlation. And, if we are to believe the survey stats that magazines and governmental quangos tell us, then there are millions aiming to retire or escape to live here. The future looks very bright.

But what of the here and now? If the temporary blip in the market is really fact, this should be borne out in market activity now. Indeed, new enquiries for properties are back on the rise. Demand is back in some force. The largest and most successful agents report that these enquiries are turning into steady sales. It is only the estate agents who had cold feet during the 2006 blip, who cut back their marketing and waited for the phone to ring, that are now suffering so severely.

So although 2006 saw a dip in demand for property in Tenerife, it was due to the misconception that it was the same as the Spanish mainland market. Misconceptions don´t last long, and sales have rapidly recovered, but vendor confidence still has some catching up to do. This has led to unique conditions in the market today with many properties available at bargain levels. Owners have been scared that they will not sell fast enough and they dropped prices. However, as vendor awareness catches up, this anomaly will not continue, but in the meantime buyers are able to benefit from the aftermath of this drop in confidence. Good advice to buyers at this time is to snap up the bargains while they are still around, because very soon they will be as scarce as ever.

The crime rate in the Canaries has dropped again, and is well below the Spanish average. The police figures are showing a higher arrest rate, solving 43% of crimes, compared to a national average of 30%. The worst place in Spain for crime is the Balearic Islands.

Details of the new hospital in the south of Tenerife have been finalised with some new departments to be completed as early as April 2008. Total cost will be 27 million Euros and when completely finished it will have a full range of departments with enough capacity to take into account the population growth in the south.

Eco-friendly power generation is the trend nowadays and the largest photovoltaic energy (that´s solar panels to you and I) power plant in the world has been opened in southern Tenerife.