Rupert Jones/The Gaurdian

Sun-seekers will be able to walk into a travel agent and view villas for sale on the Costa del Sol after Britain's biggest holiday company revealed that it is moving into the overseas property market.

Thomson Holidays is cashing in on booming demand among Brits for their own place in the sun by linking up with a specialist firm, Parador Properties.

From tomorrow, people will be able to go into Thomson's 750 high-street travel agents and find out about properties in Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.

Thomson said it was a first for the industry and would make the firm Britain's largest agent for overseas property.
With the market for traditional summer package holidays in decline, and with tough competition from online firms and low-cost airlines, tour operators are having to broaden the range of things they sell.

The growth of budget air travel and rising UK house prices means owning a property abroad is no longer just for a privileged few - and, according to a recent survey, it is now a "life ambition" for more than half of Britons. This demand has been fuelled by television programmes extolling the virtues of living abroad.

More than 500,000 Brits now own a property overseas, with this figure expected to leap over the next few years. Spain is the most popular location - in the past year Britons have bought an estimated 75,000 properties there.

Thomson had a choice of either seeing this trend as an threat or embracing it, said a spokeswoman, Rachel O'Reilly.

"Travel agents have to look beyond core package holiday sales and diversify. We've looked at the market and seen a big growth in overseas home ownership," she said.

Parador Properties has 275 staff in four countries and is forecast to sell £350m worth of overseas property this year.

The two companies said research indicated that as many as 38% of people were considering buying abroad to get a foot on the property ladder - rising to 50% in the 16-24 age group - but that most did not know where to find information about foreign properties.

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