Another sign of confidence is a reduction in the average time taken to sell a property. In Dublin city centre this is now 40 days, and in west Dublin 35 days – on average of a week faster than at the end of last year.

Daft also reported rents were 4.6 per cent higher in April than a year ago, although has ‘stabilised over the last couple of months’.

Spain’s shoreline is expected to creep inland by 20 to 70 metres over the next 45 years, a Spanish official has warned. Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, the Spanish Environment Ministry's secretary general for Pollution Prevention and Climatic Change, told a recent seminar on climate change that global warming would cause sea levels to continue rising at a rate of four millimetres a year. Combined with a predicted increase in wave size by 20 to 50 per cent, the current shoreline would move inland, he suggested. The rising tide would mean the disappearance of coastal features such as the Ebro River delta, the Doñana wetlands or La Manga on Murcia's Costa Cálida, according to experts at the seminar.

Some Brisbane property prices could go down by as much as 40 per cent, a Queensland property valuer has warned. Properties affected will be in the Woolloongabba and Bowen Hills suburbs close to a new bypass tunnel linking the two. This is likely to generate a dramatic increase in noise and traffic nuisance, according to Herriots in its report The State We’re In. Managing director Iain Herriot said those properties at either end of the tunnel would be worst hit in a similar way to those affected by the Sydney cross city tunnel.

Secret Valley in Cyprus should hold no secrets for investors the property investment company Assetz has claimed. The reason is that the residential golf development is next to the Aphrodite Hills, a similar development which is five years ahead. Investors can draw direct comparisons the neighbouring development, said Assetz managing director Stuart Law. ‘When Cyprus adopts the Euro in 2008 it will have to decrease interest rates from the current 5.5 per cent to the Euro rate of 2.7 per cent, making borrowing cheaper and further strengthening the property market’.

In a possible sign of the times, Spanish property company Ferrovial Inmobiliaria is offering to take existing homes in part exchange for newly built property. The move is said to be the first such offer from a Spanish developer. If a part exchange deal is agreed, the buyer will not have to make any down payment while finance will be guaranteed. Neither will the buyer have to move out of the old home until the new property is ready. The scheme is aimed at apartment owners in areas where the firm’s estate agent subsidiary Don Piso operates but could be extended to other regions.