Press Releases and Media Information for Kyero.com

2012 - The year of the Spanish property buyer?
With Europe still teetering on the brink of economic meltdown, and with the Euro under increasing pressure every day – how on earth could 2012 be the year that we see foreign buyers returning to Spanish property? Far from wild speculation, 2011 actually did witness more foreign property buyers returning to Spain. There’s every reason to believe the trend will continue in 2012 and beyond – despite whatever fate awaits the Euro, Europe in general, or the Spanish economy in particular. Some data 2011 was a record year for Kyero, as was 2010 before it. Kyero has been operational and a leader in marketing Spanish property to foreign buyers since 2003 – so it’s seen and survived the full cycle of boom and bust. In terms of traffic, visitors and enquiries, Kyero has grown consistently since its 2003 launch – even through the 2008/9 recession. 2011 also witnessed an all-time-high in advertiser numbers and advertising revenue. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire .. Kyero metrics We track a whole handful of metrics to guage the market and how well Kyero is doing. Here are the highlights of Kyero’s performance in 2011 compared to 2010: Unique enquirers: +25% Enquiries: +24% Property page views: +28% Web referrals: +46% Raw visits: +29% Overall page views: +26% Unique visitors: +26% In 2011, the overall increase for Kyero.com was +29%. Encouraging this might be, but a dramatic increase in web traffic doesn’t neccessarily tally with an increase in property buyers. Government data to the rescue According to recent data from the Bank of Spain, and reported by El Mundo, foreign buyers surged by almost 28% in Q3 of 2011 compared to 2010. The Spanish Ministry of Housing reported that the volume of property transactions by foreign buyers has now recovered to 2005 levels. What’s going on? It would be foolish to pretend that all was well in Europe, in Spain and in the Spanish property market.  But, despite the obvious problems, foreign property buyers have already turned their attention to Spain in 2011, and will probably continue to do so in 2012 and beyond.  Here’s why: Spanish house prices are still suppressed because the Spanish economy is still flat The recovering economies of other Eurozone countries is slowly transforming a ‘bunker’ mentality into a ‘cautious optimism’ There’s no ‘safe’ alternative investment anywhere Spanish property is now cheap enough to appear ‘safe’ to foreign buyers Kyero in 2012 We’re quietly optimistic that 2012 will be another record year, and that this will also be a bumper year for estate agents concentrating their marketing efforts on foreign property buyers. To help them maximise their access to foreign property buyers, Kyero will be adding support for an additional 20 languages in 2012, and adding a whole host of additional language features to help agents communicate with buyers from all over the world.

2011 Analysis of Spanish Property Enquiries on Kyero
According to the latest analysis from Kyero.com, foreign buyers continue to look for bargain properties, focusing their property searches in Spain’s best-known areas. Published on January 2nd 2012, the latest Kyero.com enquiry report analyses almost 130,000 enquiries made by email through the site during the second half of 2011. Estate agents advertising on Kyero.com can access the full 30-page report providing a province-by-province breakdown of Spanish properties of most interest to foreign buyers. With the benefit of the information contained in 15 previous issues, they can also access in-depth buyer trends dating back to 2004. A three page overview of the latest report is available as a free download. Alicante and Malaga remain favourites Alicante and the Costa Blanca continue to be the most attractive province for foreign buyers accounting for almost 35% of all enquiries generated. In second place, Malaga province attracted just 14.4% of enquiries, followed by Murcia with 6.1% and Almeria with 6.0%. Apartments and Villas The most popular properties enquired about were apartments (32%) followed by villas (30%) and country houses (20%). In terms of size, 3-bed properties attracted the most interest (32%) followed closely by 2-bed properties (31%) Focus on price At 47% of all enquiries, the most attractive price band to foreign buyers was ?50K to ?150K, followed by ?150K to ?250K (19%). About the Kyero.com Enquiry Report The Kyero.com enquiry report is published bi-annually to analyse the trends in buyer behaviour and interest regarding Spanish property for sale. It excludes enquiries made about leasehold, fractional-ownership and rental properties. Estate agents advertising properties on Kyero.com use the site to accurately quantify buyer sentiment. With access to this detailed information, they are able to adjust their marketing campaigns to appeal to the widest possible range of buyers.

Kyero improves advertising options for estate agents
Today Kyero.com launched a new & improved version of our Location Spotlight Pages. They’re designed to rank high in the search engines for location-related searches – and now advertiser logos are very visibly located at the top of the page  - ‘above the fold’. Very often, a spotlight page is the first Kyero page a visitor lands on, and we work hard to maintain and improve on the search rankings of these pages. View an example of the spotlight page for Javea. Estate agents can place a logo directly on these pages – and link it to their properties in that location. Every day the order of advertiser logos changes so that each agent appears on rotation at the very top of the page. By buying a single advert, agent logos will actually appear on nine different language-specific pages. Prices start at ?27 per month for towns, to ?97 per month for costas, regions and islands. View all prices Each location is strictly limited to just six adverts, so agents are encouraged to open a support ticket today to enquire about availability in their key locations. Agents ordering before August 5th 2011 will receive an additional 30 days of spotlight advertising – completely free!

Analysis of Spanish Property Enquiries on Kyero
According to the latest analysis from Kyero.com, foreign buyers are increasingly looking for bargain properties and continue to focus their property searches in Spain’s best-known provinces. Published on July 4th 2011, the latest Kyero.com enquiry report analyses almost 130,000 enquiries made by email through the site during the first half of 2011. Estate agents advertising on Kyero.com can access the full 30-page report providing a province-by-province breakdown of Spanish properties of most interest to foreign buyers. With the benefit of the information contained in previous issues, they can also access in-depth buyer trends dating back to 2004. A three page overview of the latest report is available as a free download. Alicante and Malaga remain favourites Alicante and the Costa Blanca continue to be the most attractive province for foreign buyers accounting for almost 35% of all enquiries generated. In second place, Malaga province attracted just 13.5% of enquiries, followed by Almeria with 7.3% and Murcia with 6.8%. Villas and Apartments The most popular properties enquired about were villas (31%) followed by apartments (28%) and country houses (22%). In terms of size, 3-bed properties attracted the most interest (32%) followed closely by 2-bed properties (30%) Focus on price At 46% of all enquiries, the most attractive price band to foreign buyers was ?50K to ?150K, followed by ?150K to ?250K (20%). About the Kyero.com Enquiry Report The Kyero.com enquiry report is published bi-annually to analyse the trends in buyer behaviour and interest regarding Spanish property for sale. It excludes enquiries made about leasehold, fractional-ownership and rental properties. Estate agents advertising properties on Kyero.com use the site to accurately quantify buyer sentiment. With access to this detailed information, they are able to adjust their marketing campaigns to appeal to the widest possible range of buyers.

Kyero Record Results for Q2 2011
Q2 2011 was the biggest quarter ever for Kyero. In seven key areas, the portal showed dramatic increases from its performance in Q2 2010. Unique enquirers: +21% Total enquiries: +22% Property page views: +21% Web referrals: +39% Raw visits: +32% Unique visitors: +31% Overall page views: +22% The weighted average increase for the portal over this period was +21%. Explaining the increases, Managing Director Martin Dell said: Our focus on foreign-buyers of Spanish property continues to pay off for estate agents advertising on Kyero. Since the 2008/9 recession, we predicted that the domestic Spanish property market would remain depressed while foreign buyers – particularly from other Eurozone countries – would be attracted back to Spanish property. While Spanish buyers are still very conscious and cautious about their economic recovery, buyers from France and Germany in particular are looking for opportunities in Spain again. It’s not just buyers from Eurozone countries either. We’re seeing increased levels of activity from Scandinavia and Russia, and it’s one of the reasons we’ll be supporting even more languages on Kyero.com in 2011. We certainly expect this trend of increased interest from foreign buyers in Spanish property to continue, and it’s a trend we’re continuing to invest in.

Kyero Record Results for Q1 2011
Q1 2011 was the biggest quarter ever for Kyero.com In five key areas, the portal showed dramatic increases from its performance in Q1 2010. Unique enquirers: +13% Property page views: +27% Web referrals: +44% Raw visits: +7% Overall page views: +21% The weighted average increase for the portal over this period was +12%. Explaining the increases, Managing Director Martin Dell said: Q1 is normally the busiest quarter of the year for house buyers and estate agents. Even so, to register such a significant increase over the same period in 2011 is a clear indicator that more people are interested in Spanish property in 2011 than they were in 2010 – and they’re using Kyero to find properties and estate agents. From the broad mix of indicators we take note of, activity and interest in the Spanish property market bottomed out late 2009 to early 2010. Since then, visitor and estate agent numbers have been steadily increasing on Kyero, and I think that we’re looking at slow but steady growth for some time to come. Our house price index for Q1 also showed that the average asking price for property in Spain has dropped – another factor which will be attracting buyers to more realistically priced properties. I hope that the market will avoid the high-highs and low-lows of previous property cycles and that we can expect 4-5 years of steady growth, probably followed by a similar period of cooling down. The Spanish property market generally follows this ten year cycle and all the indications point to us being at the start of another growth phase.

Alicante & Malaga Solid, Gains in Granada and Murcia
According to the latest analysis from Kyero.com, foreign buyers are increasingly looking for bargain properties and continue to focus their property searches in Spain’s best-known provinces. Published on January 4th 2011, the latest Kyero.com enquiry report analyses over 110,000 enquiries made by email through the site during the second half of 2010. Estate agents advertising on Kyero.com can access the full 30-page report providing a province-by-province breakdown of Spanish properties of most interest to foreign buyers. With the benefit of the information contained in previous issues, they can also access in-depth buyer trends dating back to 2004. A three page overview of the latest report comparing 2009 and 2010 is available as a free download. Alicante and Malaga holding firm Compared to the Kyero report covering the first half of 2010, property enquiries for Alicante and Malaga provinces have remained stable. Alicante province accounted for 33.8% of all property enquiries in the first half of 2010 and grew slightly to 34.8% in the second half of the year. Malaga province remained constant with a 13.2% share of all property enquiries throughout the year. These high ratios are consistent with the new weekly report from Kyero showing the most popular properties of the week. Properties from Alicante dominate the report in all price ranges with property in Malaga making frequent appearances. These two provinces – particularly the Costa Blanca in Alicante and the Costa del Sol in Malaga – have traditionally been favourite destinations for foreign buyers. Their appeal certainly shows no sign of waning. Granada and Murcia gaining ground In the first half of 2010, Almeria province gained ground over Granada province to claim the bronze medal in the race for most popular province. In the second half of 2010, this trend reversed, and Granada province regained it’s previous position. The percentages are close between the two and we can expect to see these two jostle for position in 2011. In the first half of 2010, the next most popular provinces were Tarragona, Valencia and Murcia – in that order. In the second half, that order had changed to Murcia, Tarragona and Valencia. Murcia made the largest position change going from a 5.3% share of enquiries in the first half to a 6.2% share in the second half. Again, the percentage changes are small and we can expect more jostling between these three provinces in 2011. Significant share elsewhere Although the top-seven provinces account for almost 78% of enquiries generated on Kyero.com during the second half of 2010, other provinces accounted for approximately 25,000 enquiries between them. While these look like also-rans in the grand scheme of things, there is clearly significant foreign-buyer interest in areas away from Spain’s most popular and traditional areas. Estate agents advertising on Kyero.com can access the full 30-page report providing a province-by-province breakdown of Spanish properties of most interest to foreign buyers. Bargain hunters In terms of property price, it appears that there has been growth at the very low end of the market, with interest declining in the middle-ground and at the high end. While interest is still the strongest in the ?50-?150K price range, the second half of 2010 saw that share decline to 45.7% from 47.2% in the first half of the year. Similarly, the ?150-?250K price bracket saw a slight decline in share from 21.4% to 21.1%. The most significant gain was seen in the under ?50K category – going from 15.1% in the first half of the year to 17.4% in the second half. At the high end, properties priced at over ?250K accounted for 16.3% in the first half of the year compared to 15.8% in the second half. The interest in very cheap properties is nothing new, but has likely been fuelled by news of Spanish banks disposing of repossessed properties. No doubt this trend will continue in 2011. Foreign buyers Available in 9 languages, Kyero.com specialises in connecting foreign buyers with estate agents in Spain. Looking at total enquiries since the start of 2009, the distribution of enquiries by language is interesting. 59.5% English 14.4% French 7.8% Dutch 7.4% Spanish 4.5% German 3.4% Italian 1.5% Danish 1.2% Russian 0.3% Portuguese While the proportion of English-language enquiries is high, this also includes many foreign buyers outside of the UK who have English as a second language. For example, visitors from Norway and Sweden fall into this category. The biggest surprise is the high proportion of French and Dutch enquiries made on Kyero.com. The least surprising contributor comes from Spain’s next-door-neighbour, Portugal About the Kyero.com Enquiry Report The Kyero.com enquiry report is published bi-annually to analyse the trends in buyer behaviour and interest regarding Spanish property for sale. It excludes enquiries made about leasehold, fractional-ownership and rental properties. Estate agents advertising properties on Kyero.com use the site to accurately quantify buyer sentiment. With access to this detailed information, they are able to adjust their marketing campaigns to appeal to the widest possible range of buyers.

Another Record month for Kyero.com
August 2010 was the biggest month ever for multi-award-winning Spanish property portal, Kyero.com In six key metrics, the portal showed dramatic increases from its performance in August 2009, and each one marked an all-time-high for the portal. August 2010/2009 compared Unique enquirers: +13% Property page views: +52% Web referrals: +35% Raw visits: +24% Overall page views: +48% Unique visitors: +18% The weighted average increase for the portal over this period was +22%. Kyero.com Managing Director, Martin Dell commented: Many people think of the summer months as a quiet time for the Spanish property market. While that may be true in terms of completions, there’s clearly a sustained interest shown by those searching for property. The fact that Kyero has recorded its biggest month ever during this period is down to our continued development, and ongoing search engine optimisation work. Dell stated that the scent of a property bargain is still a strong motivating force for foreign buyers of Spanish property. The country faces a slower economic recovery than many of its European neighbours – and this creates an opportunity to buy at a discount in a suppressed property market. To serve this need, Kyero.com recently launched a range of new features to help buyers locate discounted Spanish property. Dell continues: We recorded our August performance largely before launching the new discounted property features. We anticipate that these will contribute to further gains in future months as visitors become familiar with and start to rely on this valuable source of information about finding Spanish property bargains.

Kyero.com launch new Discounted Spanish Property Features
Now, visitors to Kyero.com can find Spanish property bargains by searching for properties which have been discounted. When searching for properties, visitors can check the Discounted box to only show properties with a minimum discount of 10%. Properties can also be sorted to show the most heavily discounted ones first. All discounted properties are highlighted to distinguish them in a mixed set of property results. When viewing a property, visitors can now see when it was first advertised on Kyero.com, what its previous price was, and the discount that the current price represents. How does it work? Since 2004, we’ve been taking regular snapshots of the price of every property advertised. Previously, we used this data to calculate our quarterly Spanish house price index. Now, we use the same data to pinpoint the highest advertised price of each property and compare it to the current advertised price. The difference is displayed as the current discount and prospective buyers can use it to locate genuine reductions on over 9,000 Spanish properties. Does a discounted price mean that the property is a definite bargain? No. Is a property which hasn’t been discounted definitely over-priced? No. Is the asking price always closely related to the eventual transaction price? No. These new discounted property features on Kyero.com are simply another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that prospective buyers must self-assemble when buying property in Spain. In the absence of any reliable official data about actual property transaction prices in Spain, they offer prospective buyers more insight into the price history of properties advertised on Kyero.com. They provide a level of transparency not previously possible, and they arm the buyer with more data with which to make an offer on a specific property. Martin Dell, Kyero.com

18,000 Norweigians targeting Spanish property
In an article entitled “Property Bargains in Spain”, Kyero.com was interviewed for the Norwegian Business Daily. Managing Director, Martin Dell was quoted as saying: Advertising on Kyero.com has been increasing since October last year, and this is usually a leading indicator that the market is improving. For good quality homes, we are near or at the bottom of the market. It is important to distinguish between good and poor quality homes in Spain. An enormous number of new holiday homes are now empty in Spain. A large portion of these properties will never be purchased, or they may be used as social housing in the future. It is more useful to look at the market for good quality holiday homes. In this market, I believe that prices have fallen by 15 to 20 percent from the top, while the worst of the worst have fallen by 40 to 50 percent. As a result of this interview with the Norwegian Business Daily, Kyero.com has researched and published a new analysis of all the leading sources of house price information in Spain. It supports that the market is at or near the bottom of the current cycle and that, on average, house prices have slipped by approximately 20% from their 2007 peak.