A recent report has stated that the Canary Islands of Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are again at the top of a holiday destinations list issued by Holidays Direct.co.uk. So great news for purchasers who have bought or are thinking of buying property on these islands for either rental or as an investment.

Britons still prefer the Spanish Islands rather than venture further afield to pastures new, and they book their holidays around four weeks before they want to away.

Buying property off plan is still one of the best ways to buy cheaply and safely, providing you buy through a recognised estate agent and not some bloke you met in a bar!! New developments are often a lot cheaper than buying a resale and, with stage payments and mortgages widely available it can be a lot easier on your pocket than you might expect.

For more information about buying property in the Canary Island, click here:

This is a warning to everyone.

We created a Flickr account to store pictures of the Canary and Cape Verde Islands and some of our developments, to use on this blog site. Having got to a point where we were storing more than the Free account allowed we paid the upgrade fee for 2 years and then merrily uploaded more pictures. Two days after uploading all the images our Flickr account vanished without warning. Even though on Flickr they state that any time they review the account and there is anything that is being done against their T & C’s they will advise you, they gave us no warning at all.

I have now tried to contact them 4 times, every time I get a reply stating:- “Flickr account “horizonnews” was deleted by Flickr staff for violating our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines”.

As you can see this is no help at all, I have asked them to let us know how and every reply I get, when I get one is the same as the above.

So this means that ALL the images we had stored on Flickr have been lost as there is now no way of getting them back.

Owing to the extraordinary number of expatriates in Tenerife , Canary Islands, it has been announced that ‘Citizen’s advice Bureaus’ are to be opened in both the North and the South of the island. This, it is hoped, will enable foreigners to be able get advice in their own language.

The staff will be fluent in both English and German and will be able to help residents. Also planned is a Cultural Centre in Santa Catalina in Tacaronte which will promote more interaction between the Canarians and those of other nationalities.

The main office in the South will be based in Los Cristianos and other smaller satellite offices are planned across the whole of Tenerife, with all staff dividing their time between the offices.

Office opening times and further information is to be announced shortly

Spanair, one the largest airlines in the world have announced that they have teamed up with eBay, the massive internet shopping site, and are auctioning of 15 thousand flights during the next three month. On offer are European and domestic flights, including the Canary Islands consisting of return and one way flights.

The first auction is due to start on February 22nd for flights between February 28th and March 3rd.

As they say, book early to avoid disappointment!!!!!

For more information contact cmorales@ebay.com or isolis@ebay.com or telephone Tel: +34 659 40 42 29 /+34 657 94 58 41

Cape Verde’s tourism industry is set to explode and early investors are going to be amongst the first to benefit

These Caribbean-like Islands became one of the most sought after places for Christmas holidays in December 2007. The main reason for this increase is that people are becoming more aware of what Cape Verde has to offer holiday makers.

This, together with tax breaks available from the Government for foreign investors and rental returns of up to around 10% per year makes Cape Verde a very sound investment opportunity for United Kingdom residents looking to for sound investment opportunities in 2008.

The Horizon Property Group has a huge number of investment opportunities, click here for more information:

Independence of the Seas(sm) is the third of Royal Caribbean’s fabulous Freedom class ships that is launching in Southampton in May 2008 for an 11 night Canary Island cruise, she will be the largest ship ever to be home-ported in Europe.

As well as the standard luxurious staterooms and service you would expect from this world renowned company, the Freedom class ships offer that little something extra. For instance not only can you ice skate, rock climb and play golf whilst on board, these 160,000 tonne ships are the only cruise liners that offer an on-board surfing experience won their exclusive FlowRider.

The Canary Island cruises stops include Tenerife, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote giving you a fantastic opportunity to visit all of these Islands and sample the Canarian hospitality.

For more information about Independence of the Seas itinerary, click here:

According to a recent report, the most sought after properties in the Canary Islands are apartments, good news indeed for investors, as the Canary Islands come in at 8th as the most popular buying area in Spain of all purchasing enquiries.

On Tenerife around 42% of enquiries are for apartments with townhouses currently at around 7% and villas at 5%.

Apartments in particular are popular purchases for families and retired couples and buy to let investors as they are low maintenance and the potential for letting is considerable, especially in tourist areas such as Los Cristianos and Las Americas.

However, commercial properties such as bars and restaurants are the most sought after properties in Lanzarote with 37% of all enquiries this is possibly due to the eztremely large numbers of expats wanting to escape the “rat race” and running their own business abroad.