The slide in the euro and a belief that the fall in property prices is bottoming out has prompted a fresh surge of interest in living overseas

For the beleaguered immobiliers of the Dordogne, the luckless inmobiliarios of Marbella, and the downtrodden immobiliari of Umbria, things may finally be looking up.

After more than five years in which falling property prices across prime eurozone locations have deterred Britons from buying abroad, there are signs of a renaissance of interest in the overseas market.

Estate agents say that the sliding euro has prompted a surge in interest from Britons wanting to buy overseas amid a growing belief that the decline in property prices is close to bottoming out. Some agents report that they have been showing clients around properties in the dead of winter, a highly unusual trend.

“There’s definitely been an increase in inquiries,” said Jelena Cvjetkovic,an associate director with Savills. “We’re fielding three times as many inquiries now as the same time last year. We tend to sell a lot of Mediterranean properties around Easter time, but this year we’ve had people going out to rural France in January and February.”

Data coming out of Spain shows that 14,500 mortgages were agreed in November 2014, up 14.2% compared with the same month a year earlier. Andalucía and the Canary Islands, both popular with British buyers, saw mortgage approvals increase by 25% and 26% respectively.

The Rightmove Overseas website saw a 72% increase month-on-month in unique visitors in January. This was 33% up on the same month last year. Just under half of prospective British buyers were looking for a second home while nearly a quarter were thinking of relocating. Others were investors looking to buy a property to rent out.

The most popular countries on the website for Britons looking abroad were Spain first, followed by France. In fourth place was Portugal and in fifth Italy. The US was in third place.

However, other countries are now coming to the fore. Despite mounting concern that it is at risk of exiting the eurozone, Greece has seen a huge increase in searches on the Rightmove site, up by 40% year on year. Ireland was the biggest climber in terms of searches in January, with a 55% increase. Almost two-thirds of those looking to buy in Ireland were Britons thinking of relocating.

Experts said cautious buyers had been buoyed by the European Central Bank’s plans to introduce quantitative easing (printing money). Falling interest rates have made the cost of borrowing cheaper, too. Renewed consumer confidence is also cited as a factor. But the fall in the euro’s value appears to be the key driver in dragging British buyers back to the market in the past few weeks.

Last March £1 bought €1.17. At the end of last week it was buying €1.35, a near 15% increase. To put this in perspective, a property worth €200,000 would cost a Briton about £149,000 today, compared with £156,000 this time last month and £164,000 a year ago. Small fluctuations in currency values can have considerable influence on demand for property overseas.

Upmarket estate agent Knight Frank recently tracked interest among US buyers in properties in the French ski resort of Courchevel against the value of the euro. In the second half of last year, as the euro to dollar exchange rate increased from to 0.73 to 0.83, property viewings on Knight Frank’s website increased by 107%. The agency said that, with prices in popular second-home destinations such as Umbria, Dordogne and the Algarve around 30%-40% lower than in 2009, buyers sensed now was a good time buy.

It added that Tuscany continued to generate the highest number of viewings and sales among its clients looking in Italy, while Liguria, Venice and Rome were also attracting strong interest.

“There is a feeling that prices in some of the favourite second-home destinations – like Italy, France and Spain, which are down between 30% and 40% since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 – are, if not hitting the floor, at least approaching it,” said Kate Everett-Allen, partner in residential research at Knight Frank.

She said the bulk of inquiries to the agency were about second homes, but there was also significant interest from “lifestyle” buyers. “These are people who are maybe in their 50s and not ready to stop work completely. They want a little project such as a vineyard.”

The return of British buyers would be a welcome relief for agents in parts of the eurozone most affected by the economic downturn. The property market in Spain in effect collapsed after the banking crisis of 2008. In 2006, 598,000 homes were sold in Spain compared with a low of 43,000 in 2013.

Buyers are, however, advised to proceed with caution. Prices in eurozone areas where there remains a glut of properties and a depressed local economy will continue to weaken, according to Knight Frank. Nevertheless Everett-Allen said momentum was building. “The number of online viewings we have had bodes well for the spring.”