It appears that the market is continuing to feel the positive impact of some key recent developments such as the return of the core British market, the appearance of new emerging markets which are driven by favorable and innovative legal and tax structures, as well as the increasing availability of mortgage financing.

The survey found an overall positive mood in the market with the activities of so-called ‘bargain hunters’ dropping considerably during the first four months of the year, while at the same time enquiries, offers and even transactions were all up.

The data was gathered from 10 leading real estate agents in the region and was complete in May, researching market confidence, performance and market trends.

It appears that the interest from the ‘end users’ is increasing constantly, these accounting for 80% of all enquiries. By far the most popular property types are still villas and apartments, with 77% of respondents reporting enquiry levels for these two types of properties being up.

The good news is that the market stabilization trend that started during 2012 seems to be continuing into 2013 as evidenced by the lack of change in the prices of apartments on the coastal strip and the prices for stand-alone detached villas decreasing by just 2%.

Despite the presence and penetration of the Internet in all facets of life, it only accounts for 27% of all leads, with walk-ins and word of mouth still accounting for half of the leads and 18% being generated by overseas agent contact.

While the growing sales volumes are being fuelled by the returning of the traditional British market, the Swedish make up 10% of the market with the Russians and Chinese making up for 15% between them, and this is a sign that the Government’s Golden Visa Scheme and the Non Habitual Regime are actually helping by stimulating demand.

New contracts have been signed by Turismo de Portugal in a bid to see more tourist all-year-round and they expect that this will result in an extra 20,000 tourists touching down at the Faro Airport this year.

All of these new flight towards faro will be originating from four markets that are now considered a priority by the Turismo de Portugal because they have a great potential o generating more tourists in the short-term, namely Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland and Poland. This has come at the cost of 400,000 euros which the government has invested into increasing the number of air flight routes to Faro Airport.

According to the Secretary of State for Tourism, the Algarve has to focus on receiving more winter tourists by cultivating and growing ties with airline companies and tour operators, rather than trying to attract new visitors by organizing events like concerts or parties. A representative from Turismo de Portugal has also added that this is the first time that a plan of ‘these dimensions’ has been put into practice.

Now for some Algarve related tourism numbers in order to put some things into perspective: the region sees 14.3 million annual overnight stays, with 10.9 million of these being booked by foreign visitors. In 2012, almost a half – 47% – of overnight stays took place over the summer season.

With those numbers in mind, we’ve been talking quite a bit lately about the fact that overall business is down, and has been down for the past couple of years, however the government has been taking steps to increase the number of tourists.

In 2013, during the first three months of the year for instance, the number of foreign tourists visiting the region increased by 14.5%, and that’s a pretty decent number.

We’ll just have to wait and see if and which result this new approach will have on the future of the region’s tourism.