I am trying to look into the health of the housing market here in the Algarve, which I believe to be fundamentally satisfactory, and am trying to draw some comparisons with Spain (which I believe is on its knees). I saw a report regarding the Spanish property market advising that there are close to 1 million properties on the market, half of them new builds.

I also understand that the Spanish property developers are having a tough time of it at the moment and that as many as 15% of buyers who put down deposits on off plan developments are pulling out. Deposits of tens of thousands of euros are being lost.

I have not seen too much evidence of off plan purchasers pulling out here in Portugal myself, but wondered if anyone has noticed this happening.

Also, the number of estate agents operating in Spain has fallen from 60,000 last year to 30,000 now. There were approximately 90,000 estate agents offices at the top of the property market !! I have only seen 3 close recently in my area, has anyone noticed any offices shut down on their travels?

If you look on the real estate section on this forum you will see properties many of which have been for sale since 2006. That should tell you something!

Hi Bazza, I believe that compared to the situation in Spain, the market here is not too bad, there are too many positives. Many agents are genuinely busy showing properties - perhaps the only thing that is needed in the market are priceing re-adjustments. There are probably thousands of examples of propeties being on the market for several years, but there is a buyer for everything at the right price (or so I believe !!)