Foreign investment in property in Spain totaled 4840 million euros at the end of last year 2006. This represents a fall of 12% over the previous year and confirms a downward trend that began in 2005. There is a general consensus that high prices are having reached home in Spain, with a special focus on areas favored by foreign buyers, the costs-coupled with the slow but steady escalation of interest rates, the two factors which are indicated as the major culprits for the decline in the volume of investment. The latest wave of scandals in some urban tourist destinations and the protests of foreign owners by the Valencian Urban Development Law have not exactly helped to reverse this trend. In this scenario might include a change in the way of marketing the property to foreign buyers.
A few years ago it was common for developers to delegate the marketing abroad in a few specialized companies that organized presentations in hotels and real estate shows where they tried to contact potential customers. Those who showed interest, could be "invited" to an inspection flight to Spain where they were collected by commercial persuasive promotion began a marathon during which it tried to find the property of the client's taste and firm a reservation. The commissions that the promoters attached to the traders were very juicy and huge margin a few years ago was handled in such operations justify the high cost of marketing. The growing Internet penetration, however, has come to change the rules of the game.