The British tourist has always been an adventurous sort, keen to get to new places before the rest of the world. Therefore, it isn't surprising that overseas property buyers are of the same persuasion. Brits have been at the front of the queue for the emerging markets across the new countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and the same is now happening with North Africa. This is interesting, bearing in mind the fact that many of the countries in which Brits are leading the property development boom have stronger ties with other European powers than they do with the UK.
Take Morocco's property market for example. It was a favourite destination for bohemian British travellers in the 1960s, but with a history of colonial rule, it is the French who have more of a cultural influence here. Nevertheless, British buyers are the ones who are driving the growth of the new purpose-built resort developments that are springing up across Morocco. Some of this is a natural extension of the traditional visits to the southern coast of Spain, as it is only another half an hour to fly to the Mediterranean coast of Africa. The developments here are a fraction of the price of a comparable property in Spain, and take little or no extra effort to reach.
Egypt is a similar situation, though the property market in Egypt here is much more open, with buyers from France, Russia, Italy and the UK all looking for the best developments and the perfect sea views for their properties. Prices again are much lower than in similar countries, but the main difference is in the way the two countries have built the interest from both tourists and overseas property investors. Egypt concentrated initially on attracting tourists, and then continued to build hotels to cater for the rising demand. The government then decided to invest more in residential tourism, and aided the process of building and selling property to foreign nationals - perhaps spurred on by the success of near neighbour Dubai.
Morocco, on the other hand, has decided to build in the residential side of its tourism offering at the same time as the hotel developments. The government has committed to spending billions of Euros in developing new resorts and putting in the infrastructure to attract 10 million visitors per year to the country, thus boosting incomes and GDP for the population.
There is yet another approach being taken on the Cape Verde islands. This former Portuguese colony, off the coast of North West Africa, has also had an influx of British overseas property buyers in the past couple of years. The government has continued with the planned infrastructure improvements, including a new international airport, but has left the development of tourist beds to Cape Verde property companies. They have even placed some restrictions on the amount and type of building going on, in order to preserve the character and nature of the islands.
Three different parts of North Africa are all treating the growth of the overseas property market in different ways - but there is something for everyone in the new tourist hotspots here.
Pauline Felward is an expert in the field of Overseas Property, with expertise specialising in upcoming markets around the world. Read the guides to buying property in Morocco
buying property in Egypt and Cape Verde for further details on the markets there. For this and more information on how to buy property overseas, please visit BuyAssociation
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