Many Brits moving to Spain are able to fully integrate and feel a part of the community, according to the Times’ online overseas property section.

Following the fortunes of many Britons who had bought property in Spain, the Times found that many had been able to send their children to Spanish schools while starting their own businesses.

The Forster family from Liverpool claimed they would be staying put, after successfully integrating into the cultural and economic life of their Andalusian village.

“We’re staying here for good,” watch-maker Stephen Forster told The Times.

“The latest and most intrepid wave of Britons to settle in Spain is challenging deeply-ingrained stereotypes of the dreaded ‘Brit abroad,” the newspaper went on to say.

Bruce McIntyre, the British consul in Malaga, told the Times: “I think the traditional image of the retired Brit coming to live in the sun is diminishing,” before highlighting that many entrepreneurial types with successful UK businesses were bringing their pedigree to Spain.

With more than one million Brits claimed to be living in Spain, property-seekers in many regions are looking to find the best locations where the Spanish lifestyle can be enjoyed alongside the cheaper property prices.

EasyJet, one of the leading providers of flights between Spain and the UK, has said that the internet has “revolutionised” the possibilities for holiday arrangement.

The budget airline company said that with the options so clear and so wide-ranging, internet-searchers are encouraged to travel by the availability of a great number of deals and an increasingly flexible and easy service.

EasyJet was one of the first airlines to offer a range of cheap flights across Europe, but has found that new internet booking and information systems are far more effective than the telephone services the company initially used.

A spokesperson for the airline hailed the transition: “In 1998 we launched our online booking service and very quickly, within a year, our total online booking was about 30 per cent.

“It means you have greater choice, people always love a bargain and the internet enables you to search for exactly what you want.”

Thanks to airlines like easyJet Brits are able to enjoy frequent flight to Spain and elsewhere on the continent - research published by the Office for National Statistics in 2006 showed that 80 per cent of all visits abroad made by UK residents were to European destinations.

EasyJet flies to Valencia from Stansted, Gatwick and Bristol airports, while Malaga, in the heart of the Costa del Sol, is served by the airline from a further six UK airports.

Spanish property offers ‘long-term capital gains’

Spain is now a key location for the purchase of both pleasant holiday homes and for mature investment seeking healthy long-term capital gains, according to a property specialist.

Off Plan International, owner of housing market portal offplanproperty.info, said that Spain had become a key market for educated property investment, with more than just sunny holiday-homes on offer.

A spokesperson for Off Plan International said that “Spain is still a popular place for Brits to invest”, explaining that a fair amount of UK buyers were looking primarily for holiday homes.

He added, however, that more dynamic buying also had an outlet in the country: “There are still areas at the peak of development, so you have an area with a large amount of development and a large amount of properties, which are obviously all in competition with each other to be let out.”

Off Plan International qualified its analysis by indicating that in these peak areas a good degree of investment was targeting the longer term and potentially high capital gains.

“Rather than people investing and wanting their return back quickly, a lot of people are buying in a more educated way,” added the group’s spokesman.

With June and July providing endlessly dreary days of grey skies and deluges for some, more Brits than ever have been encouraged to seek property abroad, according to Yorkshire Bank research.

As many as 43 per cent of UK home-seekers would now consider buying abroad, with weather-weariness adding to gripes over UK property prices, high enough in some regions to price people out of their desired regions.

Reasons for looking abroad are split between lifestyle priorities like good weather and financial concerns - around 45 per cent of people said they would buy a property overseas as a holiday home, while 32 per cent would see it as an investment.

Meanwhile the age ranges of those looking to sunnier shores are very broad, with the research reporting 31 per cent of those surveyed were interested in retiring abroad, while at the other end of the spectrum 15 per cent saw foreign homes as a way onto the property ladder.

There remained however, a distance between expressing interest in property abroad and actually initiating the process, with concerns remaining as to the practicalities of a move.

A third of people were concerned about negotiating the purchase of a home in a foreign language, with an equal amount fearing their language ignorance would mean legal advisers taking advantage.

Spain remains a favourite with British holidaymakers for the simple procedures of property purchase in the country and the guaranteed sunny weather across much of the Iberian peninsula.

Spain has been shown once again to be the world’s second favourite tourist destination, according to new figures for the first half of 2007.

Second only to traditional favourite France, with its particularly easy access for travel-crazed Brits, visitors to Spain this year from across the world totalled 33.8 million.

The sheer number of tourists coming to Spain every year is more impressive when viewed in relation to the country’s population: visitors in 2006 outnumbered residents last year by as much as 16 million.

Figures for January-July 2007 were even two per cent year up on the same period in 2006, suggesting that the Spanish tourist boom is showing no signs of abating.

The average length of stay for visitors to Iberian destinations was reported to be nine nights, leaving visitors plenty of time to sample the local culture and pick up a tan.

Many though find it too short, with high numbers of people choosing to live in Spain making it a top destination for foreign property seekers as well as tourists.

Tourists flocking to Spain are normally most numerous in the sunny Costa del Sol, but this year has seen the area overtaken by the Costa Blanca stretch of eastern coastline, which registered higher levels of late summer hotel occupation.

Valencia’s marine park has been hailed as one of many must-do cultural activities available in the vibrant city.

L’Oceonographic, a marine park amidst the City of Arts and Sciences installations featuring ferocious-looking sharks, was seen by a recent Sunday Mirror review as evidence that "Valencians don’t do things by halves in their city".

The new City of Arts and Sciences was championed by the review as an example of successful regeneration - the area has gone from marshland to the ultra-modern setting for the marine park and neighbouring Imax cinema, as well as museums and galleries.

Praise for the marine park was not limited to the sharks: "Outside, it’s more spectacular still, as enclosures are home to sea lions, penguins, dolphins and even walruses."

But neither was the Sunday Mirror content to sing the praises of the new art and science installations alone, finding that cultural activities, tapas-tasting and breath-taking Moorish architecture all made the city a great visit.

"There’s just one problem with a city break to Valencia. There’s simply too much to see and do," concluded the review.

Located on the sunny coast of Eastern Spain and boasting such vibrant charms, the city is popular with Spanish tourists as well as Brits seeking both to travel and to buy property in the area.

Those lucky enough to get to the city in coming months will be given an extra treat at the Oceonographic - two new Orcas will be inhabiting the park.

Ryanair will this month open a new flight path between Liverpool and Valencia, linking the cities for the first time.

As part of an expansion entailing the launch of 70 new routes across Europe, the Irish budget airline will operate four flights a week from Liverpool to Spain’s popular third city.

Valencia was not only named as the destination for new UK flights, but was also chosen as a new Ryanair base, along with Belfast.

Tourists and property seekers from the Merseyside area will now be able to benefit from cheap flights to reach Valencia, famed for its vibrant festival atmosphere and also its location, acting as a gateway to the sun-swept Costa Blanca coastline.

Travel is also likely to increase in the other direction, with the route opening up the colder but equally fascinating charms of Liverpool, home of the Beatles and European Capital of Culture for 2008.

The opening of new routes represented a 14 per cent expansion for Ryanair, one of the leading providers of airline services between Spain and the UK.

Noisy mopeds may soon be a thing of the past in Andalusia, according to reports from TypicallySpanish.com.

The southern region, encompassing the Costa del Sol and other top coastal destinations, is reported to be one of the first looking to apply new regulations for testing the effectiveness of moped silencers.

Holidaymakers and residents in towns such as Malaga and Marbella will no longer be plagued by the deafening revving of mopeds, if local auithorities succeed in introducing new ITV/MOT regulations to limit noise.

The reported crackdown will involve stopping mopeds with defective silencers and checking that noise reduction mechanisms are in optimum condition for use on public highways.

Spanish.com claimed that the province of Malaga, in the heart of the Costa del Sol, had the third largest concentration of mopeds in Spain, with 135,000 of the vehicles filling the local air with their often unwelcome sound effects.

Andalusian intolerance of noisy mopeds is nothing new, with the local council of Granada several years ago unanimously agreeing that any offending vehicles surpassing the maximum permitted level by six decibels would be taken off the road.

Spanish budget proposals have announced the introduction of measures to encourage the use of properties for rental.

Key measures in a new legislative package include direct accommodation subsidies for 22-30 year-olds in rental property, with tax relief also offered for all tenants.

Meanwhile the province of Andalusia, home to high-demand areas like the Costa del Sol, is to provide social housing for those priced out of the market, with rental homes costing no more than a quarter of earnings promised for those making below 500 euros per month.

The new measures seek to ease up the property market and to encourage property investors, from both Spain and abroad, to use their houses for rental purposes.

Subsidies mean that young locals will be more able to afford rent, but additional incentives for buy-to-let investors may also be given if the government yields to pressure to ease laws which currently make it difficult to evict those staying beyond tenancy.

The measures are likely to hold particular appeal for UK property investors in Spain looking to ensure stable year-round tenancy of houses and flats for the medium term, or even on a more permanent basis.

Although the two countries may seem worlds apart in terms of culture and climate, the political landscapes in Spain and Britain have been claimed to show remarkable similarities.

Website TypicallySpanish.com has compared the situation of the two centre-left governments heading for imminent elections with a lead over opponents, both having successfully taken the middle ground.

Gordon Brown’s Labour Party in Britain and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s PSOE have both boasted the achievement of economic stability for their countries, as well as talking tough on law and order, a combination which has primed both for poll success.

TypicallySpanish.com highlighted the isolation of the British and Spanish cases: "The two election campaigns in Britain and Spain will be interesting to watch this winter, and if the Socialists win in both countries they will become beacons across Europe."

Similarities between the desires of Spanish and British voters may go some way to explaining the popularity of travel and property investment in the Iberian peninsula with numerous UK citizens, who clearly feel at home in Spain.

The Spanish economy grew at an impressive 3.5 per cent rate in 2005, the last figures available from the OECD, matching the stability and expansion of the UK economy in recent years.

But it is not only economic stability and hassle-free transactions that make the two countries connect, but also character - an internet survey last week showed Spain to be the most welcoming European nation for UK travellers.

Spanish wine has been enjoying an export boom to big markets like the UK and the US, with an award ceremony last week paying tribute to the best Iberian reds and whites.

The New Wave Spanish Wine Awards 2007 took place for the third year running in London, picking out the best of Spanish wines to hit the UK.

With judges drawn from both representatives of the Off Licence News (OLN) and of Wines from Spain, expert decisions were made as to the best wines emerging from the country, from a choice ranging from cavas to whites to sherries and dessert wines.

Distinguishing itself from the pack, a five-year-old Alabarino white wine, the Pazo Senorans Seleccion Anada 2002, was named as a top performer, improving the status of whites in relation to well-established Spanish reds.

With judges tasting over 700 wines available in the UK, the awards granted further publicity to the up-and-coming export market in Spanish wine, threatening to oust France and Italy from their European dominance.

While the UK is now a well-established import market for European wine, the USA is quickly becoming a nation of wine drinkers, with the current weakness of the dollar reported to be having less effect on imports than feared.

Jon Frederikson of the California-based Gomberg-Frederikson wine consultancy was reported to claim that wine exports into the US from Spain were still rising, alongside those from France, Italy, Germany and Portugal.