Brits on top in Spain homebuying stakes; Spanish nationals in third place

And in fact, buyers from the UK beat every other nationality for some estate agencies, but northern Europeans in general continue to be the most prolific purchasers.

This is largely helped by the fact Spain is now in the top 10 in the developing world for the cheapest homes, according to figures from the OECD.

Outside the Eurozone, exchange rates play a major role in decisions to buy property in Spain, and with the pound sterling being at its strongest in nearly a decade - sitting at around €1.32 to the pound - British holiday home owners seeking to buy now are getting more for their money whilst expatriates living off retirement pensions paid in Britain are enjoying a better standard of living than in 2009, when the pound and the euro were nearly equal.

Figures from one leading property developer which is British-run but based in Spain, specialising in new builds on urbanisations - self-contained residential complexes - made up of everything from small flats to luxury villas says 14% of its buyers are Spanish, compared to 15% from the Scandinavian countries and 18% from the UK.

This does in fact suggest that, despite widespread belief, the national homebuying market is not dead yet, as Spaniards made up the third-largest citizen group in 2014.

Belgians, Germans and Russians followed at 12%, 11% and 9% respectively, the developers reveal, with Dutch buyers making up 6% of the total.

Buyers from the Middle East represented 4% and from Austria, 3%.

The fastest-growing groups were Dutch and Belgian, say the promoters.

Official figures from Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE) largely mirrored the sales breakdown supplied by the developer in question - Brits came out top at 18.06%, Germans at 6.45%, and Belgians at 6.19% - but differed markedly in terms of French purchasers who, according to the INE, made up 10.5% of the homebuying market in Spain in 2014.

The BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) bank said sales in general rose by 20.7% in 2014, the highest seen since the property boom which ended in 2008.

Around six in 10 new buyers purchased their properties in cash last year, as banks continue to be reluctant to offer loans.

But for those who manage to convince a lender to give them a mortgage, now is an excellent time - a typical loan of €95,000 over a 35-year period which would have cost in region of €500 a month in 2007 would have come in at about €300 at the end of 2014 and, with the Euribor - or Eurozone interest rate - now having taken a further nosedive, the monthly repayments for the same loan will fall to around €280.