Now that the dust (or most of it) has apparently settled following the almost cataclysmic worldwide banking meltdown, the question many property investors are asking themselves is: ‘where is now the best place to buy?’

One clue as to where the smart money may be heading, is the search criteria that internet users make when looking for property. So if more people write the phrase ‘property Spain’ compared to ‘property Panama’ it’s safe to assume that more people are considering purchasing in España compared to south America’s current hotspot.

And now, through the Propertyshowrooms.com website, you can actually find out for yourself which countries are generating most interest from potential buyers. It’s a clever search programme called the Live Property Search Index, which Propertyshowrooms.com provides free of charge on its website. All you have to do is input your search criteria (eg. The last week? The last month? By country? By town? etc.) and the programme will display the answers in a handy pie-chart for you.

I put the programme to the test for the month (middle of September to the middle of October, as I write) and it threw up some interesting results. It turns out that most people, around 33% of those who used a country name to search, were interested in Spain. The USA was next with 31%, followed by Cyprus on 14%, Portugal with 12% and Others with 10% between them. Of course, it’s no guaranteed reflection on how many of those actually end up buying property in those places, but it can give an interesting insight into the minds of investors. So what could I glean from my pie-chart?

Well, it could be argued that investors know that property prices in Spain and the USA have plummeted, leading them to believe (quite rightly) that there are some serious bargains to be had. In the USA these repossessed properties (sounds like something from the Exorcist movie) are called foreclosures. Properties which the banks are only too willing to get rid of any way they can. And in Spain, the ten year housing boom finally came to an end, with the result that there are now thousands of empty properties languishing in the top coastal tourist areas, just begging to be bought up at massive discount prices.

Cyprus and Portugal are less easy to extrapolate. Possibly, those looking for ‘lifestyle’ investment (ie. they want to get out and use their properties for holidays) are still researching all the areas which they perceive to have the warmest climate, but are still easy to get to, both in terms of flight times and passport regulations – ie. for European buyers, Portugal and Cyprus provide no obstacles because they’re both within the EU.

As the months go by, we’ll keep you updated as to the statistics coming from the Propertyshowrooms.com Live Property Search Index, though of course you can go and check it out yourself…