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Cláudia Almeida, author of the study “Foreign Owners of Second Homes in the Algarve", said that it had been necessary to provide a structure for a lot of scattered and fragmentary information in order to produce a theoretical model which could be the basis for an academic research project. The data (as yet incomplete) was recently unveiled at the debate “Residential Tourism in the Algarve, what positioning, what strategies?”

This segment of the market could be affected by external factors such as the financial crisis, the increase in the price of fuel, by security and exchange rates among others, and for this reason it needed permanent monitoring, Cláudia Almeida stressed.

Profile of resident tourists

The average age of foreigners who purchase a second home in the Algarve is 54.6; 52.4% are professionally active and only 40.6% retired.

In terms of qualifications, over half (52.8%) completed secondary education while 40.3% have a university degree.

Their favourite activities during their stay are walking (56.8%), going to the beach (55.4%), reading (54.4%) and relaxing (53.3%). Golf was of interest to only 36.3% of respondents.

The study also showed that Ireland leads the segment, with 17.4% of owners, having overtaken the United Kingdom which has a share of 12.9%, followed by Germany (11.9%) and Holland with a share of 6.8% of residents.

It is also the Irish who lead the way in terms of their intention to purchase, expressed by 12 % of respondents; the lowest rate was in the German market (3.3%). The United Kingdom showed a rate of intention to buy of 7.8% and Holland 4.4%.

The average age of Irish people interested in buying a house in the region is 48.8; most have university education and are active professionally.

British and Dutch people who are similarly interested are on average 55.6 and 56.4 respectively, with secondary education and in both nationalities are professionally active.

The German resident tourist is on average older (57.4), is retired and has higher education.

Low cost airlines lead the way

As far as the characteristics of journeys are concerned, 87.5% of people use budget airlines, travel in groups of 2.56 people, with the rate of minors being 0.32 people, from which it can be seen that journeys are mostly undertaken by couples.

The average stay of foreign residents is 36.1 nights, while 74.4% of journeys are done for leisure purposes, with golf only being the reason for travelling in a modest 8.7% of cases.

For respondents, a hire car (49.6%) and their own car (40.8%) are the preferred means of getting around during their stay.

As regards the way in which they found out about the region, 52.3% said that this was through family or friends, while 37.1% of respondents mentioned a previous journey.

In the chapter about reasons for purchasing a property in the Algarve, the climate was the reason mentioned most often (79.4%) followed by good access (52.9%) and golf (25.1%).

In terms of competition, Spain heads the list of other destinations, which 52.8% of respondents also considered as a possible place for purchasing a second home, followed by France with 21.7%.

Cláudia Almeida stresses that the study she has carried out shows the urgency of structuring data, given the need for information by the different bodies that make up the value chain.

source: http://www.algarveobserver.com