Polaris World has launched its biggest project so far - the Condado de Alhama.

Condado de Alhama will be the biggest golf resort in Europe, which will include close to 20,000 houses and accommodate over 60,000 people. The town will have five distinct neighbourhoods and will be constructed around a newly created lake. There will also be schools, a hospital, tennis and squash courts, football areas and a luxurious gym.

A new South African Constitution looks to be a favourable one for South African property owners and investors, according to Anton de Leeuw, CEO of independent property educationists YDL.

And it will be further strengthened when Parliament changes the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

Earlier this month the Constitutional Court ordered government to pay damages to the owners of Modderklip farm in Gauteng because it had not moved 40,000 squatters from the property. "But as important was the process of confirmation of the owner's property rights," says de Leeuw.

He adds: "This aspect of property rights in the constitution has been thoroughly tested and the outcome is that the rights of property owners have been confirmed."

Reports coming out of Sydney today claim that the local property market continued to tighten in the March quarter with turnover falling significantly as prices increased slightly.

Data from the Real Estate Institute (REI) of NSW show that over the quarter, the number of houses sold in Sydney decreased by more than 27% and units by more than 30%, compared with sales during the previous three months.

However the median sale price of a unit in Sydney increased 2.7 per cent to $380,000.

REI president Rowen Kelly said: "Investors are a major component of the property market and the Government has actively discouraged them from buying and selling property in this state though their anti-investment tax regime."

There is good news for the growing number of Brits wanting to invest in the Spanish property market. Banco Halifax Hispania (BHH), the Spanish arm of Halifax plc, has reduced its mortgage rates. Mortgage rates of 3.265% for loans up to 60% and 3.515% for loans up to 70% of the value of the property are now available.

Ian Smith, Head of European Operations says: "We are continuing to see low levels of interest rates in Spain which makes it an excellent time to finance that dream home in the sun. As we move into generally what is a busy house buying period, this latest reduction in interest rates makes that overseas property even more affordable".

Dubai property market cooling.

Reports in Dubai suggest that the local property market has begun to soften.

Developers say new developments are no longer selling so quickly, and resale margins on unfinished properties are falling, suggesting that this is the beginning of a correction phase.

It appears that the resale market is starting to become overheated and consequently Nakheel, a major developer, has warned speculators not to inflate the market." A lot of people are not getting the expected resale prices on their purchases," Faris Saeed, general manager of Diamond Investments, was quoted by the Gulf News report as saying.