Turkey’s conversion into the ‘next Spain’ continues apace after new home ownership figures from the country’s recently-formed Land Registry were published this week,  revealing that some 32,000 Brits now own a property in Turkey.

Overall, a mixture of Irish, Scandinavian and British buyers make up the fast-expanding community of holiday home, retirement and investment property owners in Turkey, which has grown from approximately 73,000 in 2008 to 104,000 today.

British favourite: a villa in Turkey witha for sale sign outside

Most of the development along the country’s Aegean and Mediterranean coastline has taken place in Mugla province, which includes the holiday resorts of Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye, although other seaside hotspots gaining in popularity include Kalkan, Dalyan, and Alanya on the Mediterranean (or Turquoise) coast and Kusadasi which overlooks the Aegean.

Although agents often sing the praises of Turkey’s relatively unspoilt coastline and its deserted beaches (with the exception of Altinkum outside Didim, which at best could be called cheap and cheerful) it is in reality the extremely low property prices that attract most buyers.

Making a splash - the Seahorse Residence development near Didim.

Whereas £200,000 still buys you very little in Spain – despite a severe property crash in full swing on the Costas – in  Turkey £150,000 can secure you a substantial townhouse with sea views and £60,000 a two-bedroom apartment. Inland and away from the big resorts you can halve that.

For example there is the luxury hilltop residence of Royal Heights in Bodrum, where prices start at £97,592 and, further up the coast, the unusual but striking designs of the Seahorse Residence outside Altinkum where prices begin at £31,200.

But the biggest shot in the arm for Turkish was the recent relaxation of its once draconian mortgage rules. The Turkish used to have an almost obsessive desire to stop ‘foreigners’ (by which they meant Greeks) owning property in Turkey or taking out loans on property there.

But this culture of suspicion appears to have subsided now and mortgages of up to 70 per cent loan-to-value are now available to non-Turks.

“We have seen the Turkish property market go from strength to strength,” says Steven Worboys of Turkish agent Experience International, “and British buyers still make up a majority of foreigners buying property here”.

But before you get too excited by the numbers, remember that Turkey is still an emerging market when compared to Spain. Despite its difficulties some 500,000 Brits are said to own a property on Spain’s half-a-dozen Costas and nearly 16 million of us holidayed there last year.

A tree house built among oak trees in the Alpes de Haute-Provence region of France, four metres off the ground.

It appears the tree house is  becoming an increasingly popular  holiday home as land becomes scarcer across southern Europe. Once banished to the back garden as a plaything for children, they are now being dragged  into the mainstream by an innovative French firm.

To date the company, La Cabane Perchee, has built 220 tree houses in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, each custom built to suit the tree that holds it and offering a realistic alternative to the traditional villa, townhouse and apartment holiday home.

An aboreal treat atop a pine tree in the countryside near Nice in France. It stands some 11 metres above the ground

Each wooden structure, which can be up to 15m off the ground, is built to ensure that the tree has room to grow and constructed without using nails. And if trees are scrace in your favoured location, then stilts are used instead.

And tree mansion would be a better word to describe some of the company’s creations and the larger ones are fully insulated, offer electric heating and bathrooms with toilets and showers. Prices start at €25,000 and one of the firm’s typical tree houses offers 15-18 sq m of floor space with an extra 10 sq m of terracing outside.

Photos:  Sipa Press / Rex Features

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A magnificent new villa of 1600sqm over three floors benefiting from a superb panoramic sea view

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Brazil may have once been notable only as the hideaway of train robber Ronnie Biggs but today it is blooming as a property hotspot for Brits according to the latest research from the country’s Central Bank.

Coastal allure - Brits invested £30 million into Brazil's holiday homes market in 2009

As Brazil’s economy has flourished during the global recession the latest figures – covering 2009 – show that £30.1 million was sent by UK residents to fund a Brazilian property. This includes paying deposits on purchases, mortgages and service charges.

In contrast, five years before (in 2004) just £4 million was sent, says commercial foreign exchange company Moneycorp, which reveals that enquiries about property in Brazil have increased by 40 per cent since it launched a money transfer service to Brazil eight months ago.

But interest in the country – which has a holiday homes market centred on its north-east coast near cities such as Recife, Natal and Fortaleza – is astonishing given how difficult the country’s banking and foreign exchange systems are to negotiate.

“The process for moving money into and out of Brazil is extremely bureaucratic, costly and time intensive, with UK investors losing out on an average of £5,000-£10,000 on exchange transactions” says Vasilios Dimarakis, Moneycorp’s head of overseas operations.

“This is because money is often held up by between a week and a month in Brazil while checks are made on the transaction and, during this period, the currency often fluctuates wildly and usually against the investor, unfortunately.

“Our service speeds up the transfers and secures a guaranteed delivery date for peace of mind, which helps our clients get the best deal possible when looking to invest in Brazil.”

The biggest reason why so many Brits are investing in Brazil is the strong Euro recently which, until this month, was almost at parity with the pound and made property investment in Europe more expensive than emerging markets such as Brazil. And the discount available on the Brazilian currency has obviously proved more tempting – one pound equals 2.69 reais at the moment.

But even £30 million is a snip compared to the money Brits were spending on foreign property during the boom years. For example, the Association of International Property Professional estimated that we lavished £20 billion on overseas homes during 2006 – just a year before the global property crash.