How to Avoid the Going Home Gloom

When you live in a holiday resort like Marbella, you getbuyers," Powell adds, "and two thirds of them choose
used to watching an endless stream of holidaymakersto buy on the Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca because
with the last-day blues, solemnly wheeling theirthese coasts have an excellent year-round climate,
suitcases past the swimming pool, taking in a last viewgood infrastructure and established expat
of the sea, before embarking on that dreaded journeycommunities."
to the airport.Sometimes, however, a lack of local knowledge and
"I hate this moment," sighs Mary Foster from Bristol asexpertise in buying property in a country with a
she hauls her bags out of her seaview apartment ondifferent culture, language and legal system can see
Marbella's Golden Mile. "It's always such a horriblebuyers falling foul of disreputable agents, developers or
feeling having to leave all of this," she says, wistfullynegligent lawyers for whom sudden price changes,
casting an eye across the palm trees.selling illegal properties or promising unrealistic returns
Mary only has six weeks to go though before sheon off-plan investments are daily practices.
comes back again. Apart from other obvious benefitsThis is why Lighthouse was set up, to provide its
such as being able to escape when the black skies ofcustomers with a protected environment in which they
August at home look disturbingly like winter, owning acan be reassured that they are dealing only with
bolthole in Spain is a great way to avoid that awfultrustworthy parties.
final-day-of-holiday feeling that you'll never return."Our network of 100 agents currently spans the Costa
Along with some 600,000 British buyers so far, with adel Sol and Costa Blanca, with Almeria, Mallorca and
further half a million predicted to do so in the next fiveCosta de La Luz to follow," says Shaun Powell.
years - Mary has bought a holiday home in Spain"All of our member agents must work according to the
which she visits several times a year, sometimes fornetwork's strictly-enforced code of ethics, rules and
as long as six weeks each time, and with differentregulations. If they don't, they are expelled from the
combinations of friends, offspring, grandchildren or onnetwork, which is highly damaging to their business, and
her own.there is an arbitration process to resolve matters for
"We can get here so cheaply and easily on low-costthe customer," Powell adds.
flights that we can come out here regularly," saysHoliday homes need not only be by the beach, of
Mary. "And each time we come we bump into lots ofcourse. Lighthouse has a database of nearly 10,000
people we know who are doing the same thing, soproperties, which range from rustic 30,000-euro ruins to
you end up with a whole new set of friends in a15-million euro villas, and many customers express an
different country."interest in buying an inland property in need of
Shaun Powell, managing director of Lighthouse, arenovation.
company which finds holiday homes for foreign buyersTomás Mazón, Professor in the Sociology of
by working with a network of ethical estate agents inTourism at Alicante University who is researching the
Spain, comments: "In the past, we went en masse toimpact of residential tourism in the Alicante province,
Spain to spend our annual cheap fortnight in the sun.says: "There is a shift inland among foreign second
Now we are still going there in equally large numbershome buyers who want to live in small, less developed
but as home-owners not package tourists. "Spain is byvillages with a higher quality of life, but which are well
far the number one destination for British second-homeconnected to the coast by motorways.