Today

Low cost airlines are fuelling a house price boom on the Spanish coast, according to international property agents Savills.

Cheap flights have made some previously hard to reach destinations easily accessible, opening them up to both tourists and property investors. The phenomenon, which is widely known as the ‘Ryanair Effect’ after the popular Irish budget airline, has taken hold of many of the Spanish Costas.

The Costa Tropical is one example, where popularity and in turn local house prices have been affected by the low cost travel boom. When Ryanair started flights to and from Grenada in 2005, average house prices on the Costa Tropical were at €161,000, according to Kyero.com, the Spanish property portal.

The impact of these Ryanair flights as well as Monarch’s new route to and from Grenada which followed suit in May of the same year - meant that within 3 years, average house prices grew 4.3% to an average of €168,000.

Meanwhile, the average Spanish house price decreased by 4.2% during the same period, adding further weight to the notion of the Ryanair effect.

The Costa Azahar (Orange Blossom coast) is another of the Costas to have been affected by this rise in low-cost airline flights. Castellon province is currently witnessing the building of a new airport which will increase access to the Costa Azahar region and although a date for completion has not yet been finalised, house prices in the area are already on the increase.

In their recent survey of the Spanish property market, Savills found that second homes bought near airports served by low-cost airlines are on average 39% more expensive than those further away.

As they grow in popularity, the Costas are also seeing an increase in rental demands and yields making them investment hotspots, away from the more traditionally thought of Costas such as the Costa Blanca.