The Freedom Bay hotel resort under development on the Caribbean island of St Lucia might puzzle some people, because the site looks like a clutch of villas (not a hotel) taking shape on the island’s SW coast.

The resort’s St Lucian developer has gained permission to build Freedom Bay within a Unesco World Heritage site – the Pitons Management Area – a stretch of the island’s coast near the town of Soufriere dominated by two rock ‘pitons’ – eroded lava domes left over from when the area was a fiery volcanic hell rather than a serene retreat.

But it’s what’s being built on the site and who’s endorsing it, rather than just the gorgeous environs, that makes Freedom Bay Luxury Hotel, Spa Resort and Residences (to run with it’s very lengthy official name) interesting.

Because the resort really is a hotel, albeit one of a clutch to be built around the world that are hotels where guests stay in substantial villas and townhouses rather than bedrooms when they check in. And Andrew Strauss (above), captain of the English cricket team, has bought into the idea in deal which commits the developer to sponsoring his training academy while he becomes an ambassador for the venture.

Because the site is a hotel, this makes its villas commercial developments and, says David Austin, Principal of Sipp Partnership at Freedom Bay, appropriate to be included in a Self Invested Personal Pension or SIPP. The downside is that, although they enable more sophisticated pension planners to roll properties into their pensions, you cannot use them for your own pleasure or needs – so you might say you’ve bought part of all of a Caribbean villa but won’t ever set foot in it if you want to keep the HMRC on side.

Some fifty villas are under construction within Freedom Bay and you can buy either a whole property for £660,000 or fractions of them for less, which are a little complicated so hold to your hat. Prices for a one-week fraction of a one bedroom villa in low season (from 1^st April 2012) start at £20,000 rising to a one-week fraction of a three bedroom villa at £43,750.

After purchase, owners are guaranteed a return of 6% a year on their investment until the resort opens (next year, it is planned) and then 8% for the following three years. After that, David Austin claims, the return will average between 6% and 8% a year, depending on occupancy levels.

Austin says sales have been brisk despite the global recession. Some £5 million worth has been invested since Freedom Bay was launched, with another £8 million to be confirmed.

Over the past six months or so PrimeLocation.com has been researching which sunny European second homes destinations –  including Turkey – are the best places from a rational, fact-based point of view, to own a property.

Most people fall in love with an area first and later decide to buy as they become familiar with its customs, architecture, language and locals. But this is an irrational and ‘heart over head’ approach because – for example, what happens if the weather’s horrible outside the summer season?

So we’ve been looking around at the different principles that make for holiday or second home happiness. We’ve examined meteorological records to find the warmest, sunniest and driest destinations but also where house prices are the most affordable, the beaches are the least spoilt, local airports are the most numerous and reliable and where the legal buying process can be said to be the most robust. The only measure we didn’t include is crime – information on which is hard to come by.

Hot spot
The warmest, with an average upper daily maximum temperature of 34 deg centigrade, is Spain’s Costa de la Luz – the most southerly – although it has high average rainfall and some of Spain’s highest house prices.

Sunshine
Sunniest is Cyprus, where on average the sun beats down for 12 hours a day and the driest is the Greek island of Crete, which has just 6mm of rain on average during the main summer  months. The island also contains some of Europe’s most affordable holiday homes which sell for an average of £140,700, explained in part because it’s on a limb somewhat and which it’s difficult to reach from the UK direct during the low season.

Beaches
If you love your beaches to a high standard then Spain’s Costa Blanca is the place to buy, as its coastline harbours some 104 European Blue Flag beaches, a surprise to some who view the costa poorly based on the rowdy reputations of Benidorm and Alicante.

Legal system
Legally speaking Cyprus is the best spot if you want watertight home buying legislation. Modelled loosely on our own Land Registry and enforced relatively strictly, it outshines Spain and arguably even France even if it can be painfully slow sometimes.

Airports
If a reliable air route there and back is a must-have, then Spain’s Costa del Sol is the airline hub in Europe. Its resorts are served by up to six airports (Malaga, Cordoba, Seville, Almeria, Granada and Gibraltar) and in the high season over 50 flights wing their way to their busy runways on changeover days, hardly surprising given some 15 million of us enjoy a holiday there each year.

The No.1?
But if you roll all this up  and the pick the one country that offers the best balance of all these features is Cyprus. No place is perfect of course and the island has its problems as well as allures. It is frequently dogged by water shortages, the island remains split in half by the 1974 war and a poorly regulated mortgage market recently came back to haunt its developers following a well-publicised scandal.

If you think London is a teeming mass of cars and humanity close to bursting then spare a thought for the residents of Shanghai, the world’s largest city with a population of 23 million.

To cope a network of nine new towns have been built – or are planned – around Shanghai. But in a bizarre move many of them have been built to closely ape European architectural styles.

Four have been completed thus far including Anting, Songjiang, Luodian and Gaoqiao although overall the new ‘villages’ will ultimately hold approximately 50,000 residents. So far the completed developments are to the north and west of Shanghai’s brazenly vibrant and wealthy central zones, which have been enriched in recent years as the city has become the gateway to and port for China’s piping hot economy.

Genteel streets: Songjian in China copies the English style

European visitors to Shanghai can book up for tours to stare at the incongruous buildings set among the mangle of modern Shanghai. Most curious for British visitors is Songjian, 34 miles south west of the city centre that’s architecturally a carbon copy of St Albans or maybe Marlow.

Dead ringer: a street in Songjian complete with its own red telephone box.

Called ‘Thames Town’ by the Chinese, Songjian is by a river – the Yangtse – and has been built with many elements of an English country town including a large Victorian church, several pubs including the Rock Point Inn and several red telephone boxes.

If you hanker after other architectural styles then try Anting, an unusual German pastiche town filled with Weisbier bars, statues of austere looking burghers and raked roofs. Or drop by on Luodian, a small smorgasboard of Sweden or Gaoqiao, which has a distinctly Dutch flavour including huge model clogs scattered around its streets. Most bizarre of all is a mini Paris that has been built in Tianucheng on the outskirts of Hangzhou, 168 kilometres SW of Shanghai. It features a quarter-size replica of the Eiffel Tower at its centre.

The Chinoise way: a replica of Paris Tianucheng on the outskirts of Hangzhou, 168 kilometres SW of Shanghai

But there is one catch to this odd rash of counterfeit towns circling Shanghai; they are largely empty. Like many ideas forged from the crucible of a centrally coordinated command economy, they has bombed with their intended residents. Songjian is now a favoured picturesque backdrop for China’s upwardly mobile to get married in, but otherwise many of each town’s homes stand empty.

A brick-by-brick copy of an Austrian lakeside town in Guangdong Provice, near Hong Kong.

This failure has not put Chinese developers off having a go at European towns. The latest project to be completed is in Boluo, Guangdong Provice close to Hong Kong. It’s a brick-by-brick replica of the Austrian lakeside town of Hallstatt.

Twinning is unlikely – residents of the conservative southern Austrian town are said to ‘incensed’ at the cheap copying of their home town.

Combining high-end glamour with down-to-earth accessibility, it’s no surprise New York City’s TriBeCa neighbourhood is a magnet for celebrities, including Robert De Niro, Tyra Banks, Jay Z and Beyonce and Meryl Streep who all call this tucked away corner of lower Manhattan home.

Now there’s a chance to own a home in New York City and buy into this enviable Big Apple lifestyle, with news that Michael Imperioli, best known for playing Christopher Moltisanti in Emmy-award winning series The Sopranos has put his TriBeCa home of 20 years on the market.

The four-storey home for sale, with retail premises on the ground floor, is being sold through Sotheby’s International Realty for £3.8 million.

It’s a large bright, spacious cast iron building dating from 1872. The home, which is decorated in a luxurious Venetian Palazzo style has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and the piece de resistance – a large wooden decked terrace on the roof.

What’s not to like? As Imperioli might have said during his Soprano days.

Long awaited changes to Cypriot property law aimed at similutating sales of new homes in Cyprus are finally in place.

The changes, which either abolish or reduce property transfer fees (depending on whether you are paying VAT on your purchase) came into effect on December 2, 2011 and will remain in force for a period of six months.

To benefit, the property must be new and the contract must be dated and concluded before June 2012.

Essentially, if you pay VAT on your house purchase, you’ll pay no transfer fee at all and if you are eligible to pay VAT on your purchase, your property transfer fee will will be reduced by 50 per cent.

Richard Way, of the Overseas Guides Company says it’s hoped the Cypriot tax initiative will kick start the property market in the face of growing financial uncertainty across Europe.

“Now that a favourable decision over transfer tax has been announced, buyers who had been waiting in the wings for confirmation will now be happy to commit to a purchase, thereby injecting some life into the depressed Cyprus property market,” Way says.

Whether things run as smoothly as that remains to be seen, but this does seem to be a step in the right direction for a property market that’s had its fair share of struggles over the past years.

How many people can count a Hollywood A-list actor as their neighbour? Well, not many at all.

Take Johnny Depp. There’s the people who live underneath his flat in the Paris suburbs, his neighbours over the way at his South of France bolthole and, more recently, new locals to get to know at the Norfolk mansion he bought near Burnham Market.

But neighbours of a very different kind are to be found near his home in the Bahamas. And that’s because they need a boat to pop over for a drink – Depp and long term partner Vanessa Paradis own one of the area’s many islands, Little Hall’s Pond Cay, and the neighbouring cay is currently for sale.

It’s in the central Bahamas and on the market for $75 million – although smaller and less developed cays are currently for sale at around £10 million but often with strange names.

For example, some rather alarming monikers recently on the market have included Cockroach, Bottle and Goat Cay ranging from £1.1m to £25 million in price.

But the buyer of this private island gets more than just a patch of beach and a few palm trees. Its 38 acres include a large plantation-style manor house, separate fitness centre, infinity pool, a working lighthouse and a staff village for 29 people.

There’s also a heliport, deep-draft docks, freshwater treatment plant, beach cottage, harbourmaster’s house and twin guest cottages – all accommodating 22 people in fairly lavish luxury.

And if you’re wondering how you get there – the nearest main island, Exuma (after which the group is named) is some 60 miles away. The answer is, this island comes with its own seaplane.

But get bidding fast. Depp and Paradis are said to be having relationship troubles and so you neighbours may soon drop down to one, rather than a couple.

For more information, contact agent Sotheby’s International.

If you’re in the enviable position of making 2012 the year you buy a home overseas you’ll want to be sure to buy it somewhere that promises good value for money and security as well as the lifestyle you desire. 

This estate in the Cap D'Antibes, French Riviera is for sale through Home Hunts for 52 million euros. It includes a main house, two guest cottages and an office building.

The eurozone crisis, recession, and job uncertainty have heaped on the pressure for house hunters, especially those eyeing property abroad. The idea of course, is to buy something somewhere you want to live (or go on holiday), at a good price in an area where demand is steady, which should reassure you when it’s time to sell up and move on.

According to those at the coal face of international property, one of the keys is to look out for proven, not promised areas. For instance, the traditional and popular holiday destinations such as Barbados, the French Riviera and Marbella in Spain have stayed popular despite the difficult economic climate.

Property in France
“The economic slowdown has certainly not dampened the enthusiasm of the very wealthy buyers,” says Tim Swannie, director of France-based property buying agents Home Hunts. “In fact it seems to have spurred many on into investing in properties in the right location.” 

For instance, Swannie nominates properties in the French Riviera (particularly St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Cap d`Antibes and Cannes), Provence (the Luberon and Saint Remy de Provence), the Dordogne, parts of the Alps (Chamonix particularly but also the French side of Lake Geneva) and Paris as in very high demand.

Property in Spain
Marbella is also vastly outperforming the rest of Spain’s troubled market, says Fine & Country Spain director Martyn Ball.

Five bedroom home in Marbella for sale for 3.9 million euros through Fine & Country

“It seems, whether cyclical or due to economic and political unrest in numerous global destinations, the British Market is returning to areas much closer to home and to trusted areas to buy property, Marbella being one of them,” says Ball, adding the British are  “benefiting from the current availability of luxury mansions at 2004 and 2005 prices”.

Property in the Barbados
Caribbean property specialist Andrew W. Mallalieu of estate agency Terra Caribbean says property in Barbados will be in great demand in 2012.

This seven bedroom home in Barbados comes with a guest cottage, pool, sea view and access to a championship golf course. It's for sale for US $6.5 m through Royal Westmoreland Barbados

“The Barbados brand is very strong and has actually strengthened in the downturn,” he says. “The peripheral markets that were getting attention when the world economy was booming have all gone silent.

Barbados also feeds into the back to basics approach that’s becoming increasingly improtant to those choosing an overseas holiday home. For instance, the fact Barbados is beautiful island, has no capital gains tax, gives equal treatment for non-nationals in taxation matters, has good infrastructure and is safe and secure is now exceedingly significant, says Mallalieu.

While the bottom and middle of the Spanish property market flounders, those with cash to splash have started to return to the Andalusian sun.

One of Spain's most expensive properties, La Casa Loriana, is in Marbella

Fine & Country’s Tony Instrall knows this better than most. Together with Martyn Ball, Instrall runs the estate agent’s Costa del Sol business, based in the uber posh Marbella Club.

“We don’t sell anything under a million euros, which keeps us to a very niche market,” Instrall explains. “We offer a full premium service to our clients and the results have been very good so far.”

Crucially, unlike in the rest of the Spanish market where the bubble has well and truly burst, the demand for high end and exclusive property in Marbella remains steady. Those on the hunt for a perfect piece of Spanish real estate tend to be a mix of retirees, holiday home hunters and investors who come for Marbella’s micro climate, coastline, golf courses, and, let’s face it, glitz.

And there’s strong interest from UK buyers, says Fine & Country Spain director Martyn Ball.

“The British market in Marbella is once again particularly strong, rivalling recent healthy markets of Russia and Scandinavia.

“During the last decade we experienced booming global markets and purchasers were prepared to travel further afield to buy property, with their curiosity for new horizons. It seems, whether cyclical or due to economic and political unrest in numerous global destinations, the British market is returning to areas much closer to home and to trusted areas to buy property, Marbella being one of them.

“One thing is for sure, the British buyer is a savvy purchaser and is seeing great value in the many opportunities in the upper quartile of the market. Consequently the British are active again and are benefiting from the current availability of luxury mansions at 2004 and 2005 prices.”

On their books at the moment is one of Spain’s most expensive homes, the incredibly grand La Casa Loriana (pictured above), which at 4,000 square metres can accommodate up to 20 people, has its own private lift, guest quarters, Turkish bath, gym, medical room and cinema and is on the market for 50 million euros.

This villa in Marbella is on the market for 5.9 million euros

Slightly more affordable at 5.9 million euros is a six bedroom new build (pictured above) with panoramic views of the Mediterranean Sea in one direction and the La Concha mountains in the other. The swimming pool, gym and home cinema are of course included.

British buyers are seeing the opportunity in Marbella's luxury mansions, says Fine & Country's Martyn Ball

The high end property business is going so well that Fine & Country are now looking to sell homes in Barcelona and property in Majorca. “Barcelona has strong international appeal, but there’s a domestic market there too,” Instrall explains. “It also has a strong appeal to Russians, but not necessarily the Oligarch billionaire market, it’s more wealthy people who want to bring up their families in an international setting, but within striking distance of home. While prices may have dropped a bit in Majorca, there are still lots of people buying there, including huge interest from the German market.”

Steve McQueen was the ‘King of Cool’ and remains one of the highest earning of Hollywood’s actors, even though he’s been dead for over 30 years.

But if you want to buy a piece of his home life then there are three former properties of his on the market in and around Los Angeles. First up is a childhood home for sale at $599,900 (£379,320) in the Echo Park district between central Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills.

Childhood home: the house he called home during his mid teens in Echo Park, Los Angeles.

The building is where McQueen lived with his mother and stepfather when aged 13 and is a two-storey Spanish-style block containing three one-bedroom apartments.

But it wasn’t a happy time – after moving there McQueen began quarrelling with his stepfather, who was his mother’s third husband, and the two fought including one incident when his stepfather threw him down the property’s stairwell.

McQueen was soon packed off to his great uncle’s farm in Missouri (where he had more or less brought up after his mother left him there when still a toddler) but after a spell working for a travelling circus, he drifted back to Los Angeles, where he was involved in petty street crime and eventually ended up in a school for wayward teenagers.

After leaving this school he spent time at his mother’s new home in Greenwich Village, New York but soon left and travelled across the US before joining the US Marine Corps in 1947.

In 1952 he left military service and returned to Los Angeles where he began to train as an actor, moving (during 1954) into a house also in Echo Park, just a few blocks from his mother’s former address.

It took McQueen four years to find regular acting work and in 1958 he was cast in the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive but it wasn’t until 1960 that he got his big break in The Magnificent Seven.

After this wealth followed and he bought a house at 27 Oakmont Drive, known locally as ‘The Castle’, the entrance to which even today is hidden behind a large wooden gate.

But Steve McQueen in addition had an ‘out-of-town’ home in Palm Springs, which is also for sale at the moment. No. 2203 Southridge Drive is on a hillside overlooking Palm Springs and is an achingly fashionable 1960s modernist house with a swimming pool and five bedrooms on the market for $3.47m (£2.19m).

But there’s one more home for sale nearby that also used to belong to Steve McQueen – his last. In the late 1970s, and now approaching is third marriage, McQueen shunned Hollywood to concentrate on motorbike racing – and bought a fairly modest ranch house with outbuildings, plenty of land (most of which is now a vineyard).

This is currently for sale and has been on the market since February 2010 when it was offered for $1.95m was then reduced to $1.05m and is currently on the market at $678,400 (£428,962).

If you are about to buy an overseas property then, despite today’s uncertain global economy, you are one of a growing number of people returning to the market after a period of, how shall we say, choppy waters.

The latest PrimeLocation.com International Search Index, which is published quarterly, reveals that the number of people house hunting on our site increased overall by 14% during the third quarter of 2011 and by 17% for the top ten most popular destinations (see list below).

At the top of the table, the United States is the most popular attracting 31% more searches than in the previous three months and overall it remains the third most popular destination for property hunters.

France: one of the European countries that an increasing number of British buyers searched for last quarter.

Switzerland was another big winner within the top ten – the number of searches for its Alpine homes increased by 30%, helped by the thousands of wealthy Brits moving money into its safe haven property markets at the moment.

But what, you may ask, is stirring people to buy overseas when several of the countries popular with British buyers are facing financial meltdown – i.e. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal?

The answer is that searches are beginning to increase again in the better known destinations despite the financial problems besetting them as many British retirees decide it’s time to emigrate to Europe and beyond for a better quality of life despite the recession.

PrimeLocation.com index also recorded more interest in Germany; searches there rose by 28% compared to the previous quarter driven by its status as the darling of international investor set as its economy shrugs off the recession.

So are there any losers? Only two countries within the top ten saw a decline. Searches for Cyprus property fell by one per cent, and the United Arab Emirates by five per cent, which dropped one place as a result within the Top Ten.

For a full list of the most popular countries by volume of searchs, go to www.primelocation.com.