The town planning laws at the centre of the controversy were originally introduced in the Valencia region of Spain, which includes the Costa Blanca, in 1994 to prevent land owners holding town councils to ransom over development plans.

At the time speculators were buying up huge areas of green belt land in the hope of selling it on at a later date as urbanisable land, but the LRAU laws allowed planning authorities to take land from its owner by citing “public or social interest”.

However, during the huge building boom that has taken place in Spain during the last ten years or so, the laws have been increasingly abused by both councils and developers, with greed and profit rather than public interest said to be behind many of the 20,000 or so compulsory purchase orders.

In many cases people who have lost both land and property with little or no compensation have also been asked to pay for part of the costs of the new infrastructure for the affected areas.

One case that has been hitting the headlines in both Spain and around the world this year involves a Belgian couple who have lived in their 150 year old property set amongst seven acres of terraced vineyards and olive groves in the the Coma del Pou area of Benissa in Valencia’s Alicante province for the past 18 years.

Last November they were told that under the LRAU laws, two thirds of their land was to be declared urbanisable and that they would have to pay a whopping €700,000 (about £470,000) for the infrastructure - roads, drains, street lighting - required. The alternative was for them to sell their land to the developer who had earmarked it for 17 new houses.

In February this year, the LRAU laws were replaced by LUV laws which were meant to improve the situation in Valencia, but in reality little has changed. Certainly not enough for the European Commission which is looking for significant changes to bring it into line with EU law.

British MEP, Michael Cashman, has been leading the fight against the land grab laws from the European Parliament and he welcomes the Commission’s latest move against Spain.

“I’m delighted to hear the Commission are continuing their actions against Spain in what has become a long and painful fight for justice for many EU citizens of all nationalities who have been affected by this unjust and inhumane law. The regional and national governments in Spain have not convinced the European Parliament or the European Commission that their new land laws are any better than their old ones.

“Under EU public procurement law, which regulates the development of land, it is clear to me that Spain is breaching her obligations in Valencia and probably in other regions as well.”

“I hope that the Spanish national government will take this legal and political opportunity to resolve the problems as soon as possible.”

The sooner the better as far as estate agents in the Valencia region are concerned because the widespread adverse publicity surrounded the land grab laws has most certainly had an effect on the number of property buyers coming to the region and indeed Spain.

Sales of Spanish property to foreign buyers in general was down 13% for the first half of 2006 according to government figures, due in the most part to affordability issues and the overdevelopment of once popular areas, but those sales figures will not have been helped by the negative media attention that the LRAU and LUV have attracted.

The countryside around Catral, a small town 25 miles south west of Alicante, has undergone a mini-construction boom in recent years, with many of the properties being snapped up by British buyers.

However, around 1,200 properties are now under investigation by the Valencian authorities because they have been built on land not designated for construction purposes.

Place In The Sun first reported problems with building irregularities in the Catral area over a year ago (see Costa Blanca Dream Home Now A Nightmare). Hundreds of properties have been built within an area known as Embalse de El Hondo, a protected nature reserve, while others have been built without planning permission on land designated for agricultural purposes.

Esteban Gonzalez Pons, the Director of Housing for the Valencian regional government, has said that any property built within the boundaries of El Hondo will be demolished, while those built on agricultural land will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

At the heart of the scandal is yet more allegations that local politicians were working hand in glove with construction companies for mutual benefit. According to reports in the Spanish press, the mayor of Catral, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Leal, allowed his son-in-law to build many of the properties now under investigation, and other local politicians are also currently under investigation for their part in the scandal.

It leaves many British property owners in the area facing an uncertain future and comes only months after the property scandal that is currently engulfing Marbella.

54% of the 1,000 British people who took part in the survey said they would consider or have considered or hope to move abroad, and when asked whether they would actually ever go, 13% said they were hoping to emigrate in the near future - double the number from 2003.

The most popular destinations for would-be ex-pats were Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and the USA and the main reasons given for wanting to emigrate were quality of life, the weather, and a feeling that the UK is too expensive.

Interestingly, young people, and not those approaching or in retirement, were most likely to say that they wanted to leave the UK, a trend that is likely to continue.

Qatar itself is a former British protectorate that gained independence in 1971. Once famous for its pearl fishing, it is now one of the richest nations in the world courtesy of its extensive oil and natural gas reserves. It is also a country that embraces visitors - in fact foreigners outnumbers native Qataris thanks to a booming constructing industry and gas and oil.

Qatar sees tourism as a big part of its future, and the expansion of the Doha International Airport in three phases underlines this. By 2015, it will be one of the largest and most modern airports in the world, with the capacity to handle 50 million passengers a year. It will also be the first airport in the world designed specifically to accomodate the new two-floor Airbus A380-800, the largest passenger aircraft ever built.

The Pearl-Qatar development presents the first opportunity for foreigners to actually own property freehold in the country. In June, 2004, the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, passed a dcree stating that property owners would be entitled to apply for a residency visa upon the purchase of a property on the island. This visa includes dependent children and is valid until the property is sold.

Pearl-Qatar will be connected to Doha by a causeway, but it is designed to offer exclusive living in a community that will boast marinas and upmarket retail outlets as well as schools - three primary and one secondary - medical facilities, supermarkets and public parks.

Three main marinas will be set within distinct residential zones, each with unique characteristics and lifestyle features. The first phase of the development is Porto Arabia, the gateway to the island, with the first units scheduled to be ready for occupancy towards the end of 2007.

Then there is the Costa Malaz, a quiet haven of up-market lifestyles in the second harbour. Here, stand-alone villas are arranged to overlook a sweeping harbour, which is entirely bordered by a beach. Viva Bahriya, described as “a perfect home for families” will be at the geographical centre of The Pearl-Qatar, while Isola Dana is an exclusive chain of islands which enable owners to style their own residences. They will extend out into the Arabian Gulf to afford considerable privacy and discreet independence.

Property available on Pearl-Qatar will run the full gamut from apartments, townhouses and villas. Prices will start at around US$250,000 for a 120 sqm one bedroom apartment.

In March, the mayoress of Marbella, Marisol Yague, was arrested along with 18 other individuals including other councillors, local businessmen and lawyers following allegations of corruption, bribery and cronyism. Following the arrests, property including villas, cars, cash, art, thoroughbred horses and even a helicopter were seized with an estimated value of around €2.5 billion euros.

In 2005, the regional government for Andalucia withdrew all planning powers from Marbella’s town hall and started a corruption investigation. The sheer size of the sums of money involved may surprise many people, but when you consider that more property was built in Andalusia during 2005 than was built in either the UK or Germany you begin to realise just how big the real estate industry is in Spain.

It is thought that as many as 30,000 properties have been built illegally in the Marbella municipality in recent years, with politicians and others making fortunes by re-zoning green belt and protected land for urbanisation.

While the majority of those properties are likely to be legalised, around 4,000 properties that were built too close to the sea, on public park land and in protected areas face demolition. And the owners of properties that do not have a building licence or planning consent are not entitled to compensation under Spanish law.

The latest wave of arrests include leading figures in the Costa Del Sol construction industry, a former police chief and a number of local politicians.

The granting of illegal building licences and the reclassification of land by corrupt politicians has been the cause of increasing concern in Spain and a number of other investigations are currently underway in the likes of Manilva and Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol and Elche on the Costa Blanca.

Anti-fraud legislation has also just been passed by the Spanish Parliament that will force buyers and sellers to provide more information regarding property transactions and stop the practice of paying for property in cash in a bid to evade tax.

True, not many people could place it on a map, but if you work your way down Africa’s east coast and turn right when you reach Madagascar, you will find Mauritius basking in the equatorial heat of the Indian Ocean.

When you do find it, chances are you won’t want to leave, but at present the longest you can stay was three months. However that is about to change because legislation has been passed to allow foreigners to buy property on the island for the very first time - until recently only those native to Mauritius were entitled to own real estate.

Foreigners will be restricted to owning property in purpose built villages known as Integrated Resort Schemes so that they do not price Mauritians out of the property market elsewhere on the island. Ownership of property on the island entitles you and your family to reside in Mauritius for as long as you own the property. And with further tax incentives available and the fact that Mauritius is to become a duty free island before the end of the decade, a villa in such a resort will certainly have its attractions.

One of the first resorts to be developed is Anahita, a 214 hectare site situated on the east coast of the island. When completed in 2011, it will be home to 215 luxury villas, 40 golf lodges and 70 marine apartments and boast four miles of coastline, exclusive dining, shopping, entertainment and sports and leisure facilities including an 18 hole championship golf course.

Such luxury won’t come cheap. Apartments start at around the £500,000 mark. A villa could set you back as much as two million pounds. That said, there isn’t likely to be a shortage of buyers. The first phase of 70 luxurious waterfront residences at L’Adamante sold out within six hours at the invitation-only sales launch in Port Louis, Mauritius last week.

The survey compares median house prices to median household incomes with a ratio of 3.0 or below classed as being affordable. A ratio of between 3.1 and 4.0 is described as moderately unaffordable, 4.1 to 5.0 as seriously unaffordable and a ratio of 5.1 or more as seriously unaffordable.

The state capitals of Australia are included in the survey and in every housing market in metropolitan areas with a population of more than a million the ratio was 6.0 or higher - or seriously unaffordable.

Sydney has a rating of 8.5 - higher than both New York and London - with a median property price of AUS$520,000 and a median household income of AUS$61,000.

The housng markets in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Perth are also classed as being severely unaffordable, while Canberra with a score of 4.8 and Darwin with a score of 4.3 fall into the seriously unaffordable category.

Historically, such levels are unprecedented. As recently as 1996, median house prices were described as being only moderately unaffordable in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane and in 1981 all four housing markets were classified as affordable.

All three metroplitian areas with populations of 300,000 or more - Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington - were also classified as being severely unaffordable by the survey.

Conversely, in Canada only one of nine metropolitan areas in the survey was classified as severely unaffordable - Vancouver with a score of 6.6. Edmonton, Quebec and Winnipeg were all classified as being affordable while Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal and Hamilton fell inside the moderately unaffordable group. Toronto scored 4.4 and so was seriously unaffordable.

“We’re expecting that by the end of the year prices go negative,'’ Bollard was quoted as saying by Bloomberg while at a meeting of central bankers in Switzerland. “We are seeing the rate of increase slowing a lot.'’

New Zealand’s Central Bank has upped interest rates nine times since the start of 2004 and they now stand at 7.25% - in the UK they are currently 4.5%. And average price rises have been a main factor in these interest rate hikes, not least because of the effect that rising house prices have on inflation.

House prices in New Zealand increased by an average of 69% between 2000 and 2005 according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development whose “Are House Prices Nearing a Peak?” report states that New Zealand’s property market is one of the most vulnerable to further increases in interest rates.

The report states that if prices continued to rise at the same rate as they did in 2005 and interest rates were to increase by a further 1%, there was an 83.9% chance of a fall in prices. Only Denmark was more likely to see price falls during such a scenario out of the 17 countries studied in the report.

House prices in have been plateauing for much of this year to date according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), but the number of sales has been falling. In Auckland for example, while prices have risen by 36% during the last three years, the number of transactions taking place fell from just over 4,000 in May 2003 to less than 3,000 last month.

All of the above would suggest that New Zealand is increasingly becoming a buyer’s market as far as property is concerned - which is good news for those looking to emigrate to New Zealand, but not such good news for those wanting to sell up and come back home.

The same is true of the New Zealand dollar which has fallen in value against the pound this year - great news if you are using your pounds to buy Kiwi dollars, not such great news if you want to do the opposite.

engage Mutual Assurance compared the expectations of those who have yet to retire, with the experiences of those who have already retired and the difference between hopes and reality was quite marked.

53% of those surveyed were planning to travel in retirement while 36% were hoping to buy property abroad once they had finished working. But despite the best laid plans, only 23% will go overseas in retirement and just 7% will sign a foreign property agreement.

“With people living longer, retirement is becoming a time when we look forward to new experiences, learning a new skill and relaxing with family,” commented Karl Elliott of engage Mutual Assurance.

“However, with the average state pension currently paying £82.05 a week, financial limitations often prevent Britons from fulfilling their more adventurous aspirations in retirement. Retirement savings need to go beyond the traditional pension. Saving little and often well in advance and making the use of tax-exempt opportunities with ISAs and Guaranteed Equity bonds is a simple and easy way to top up a retirement provisions pot.”

The stumbling block to this happening is that following the invasion, the Turkish authorities nationalised all of the land and property that had been owned by Greek Cypriots in the north and then redistributed part of it to Turkish Cypriots and Turkish settlers. Since then much of the redistributed land has been developed and sold again - including to British property buyers at knockdown prices.

Not surprisingly, buying property in the Turkish Republic Of North Cyprus - a “country” that is itself only recognised by Azerbaijan and Turkey as anything other than occupied land - doesn’t come without risks. One thing is for certain however if this situation is to be resolved. At some point the Greek Cyrpriots will either have their land reinstated or be awarded compensation for their losses.

The European Court Of Human Rights has ruled that the original owners are “the only true and lawful owners” of the land they were force to leave and around 1,500 Greek Cypriots are currently pursuing Turkey through the courts in Strasbourg.

In a bid to have the cases settled locally, the ECHR gave Turkey until June 2006 to prove that it was able to provide “genuine and effective redress”. In December 2005, an Immovable Property Commission was set up by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to deal with Greek Cypriot property claims and with the deadline for action fast approaching, it has announced its final decisions on three of the 17 cases presented before it.

In two cases the Immovable Property Commission has ruled that land should be returned to its former owners while compensation has been offered in the third case because the land in question is now classified as of military importance. A number of other cases are expected to be settled shortly although it’s unlikely that all offers of compensation will be accepted.

For its part, the government of Cyprus is urging Greek Cypriots not to take their cases to the Commission in the north because it does not recognise its right to adjudicate and wants to see all of the confiscated land returned to its Greek Cypriot owners.

If the ECHR does rule that the Immovable Property Commission is a fair and efficient reparation mechanism, it will direct other claimants in its direction, although anyone unsatisfied with the Commission’s findings will still be able to take their case back to Strasbourg.

A decision from the ECHR with regards the Commission is due before the end of the year, but a final resolution to the situation can’t come soon enough for British buyers who have bought property built on land that was previously owned by Greek Cypriots. Many are living in an uncomfortable limbo, not quite knowing where they stand legally despite assurances from politicians and developers in the north.

On the 20th of July - ironically enough, the anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus - the High Court in London is to rule on whether or not it will enforce a Nicosia court ruling ordering a British couple to return land and pay compensation to its former Greek Cypriot owner. David and Linda Orams from Sussex built a luxury villa on the land after buying it in good faith from a Turkish Cypriot, but if the ruling goes against them they risk losing not only their villa in Northern Cyprus, but their home in Hove too.