Over the course of the past 12 months, the Egyptian property market has seen considerable expansion, especially throughout the Red Sea resorts such as Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Marsa Alam. This is all the more surprising given the more challenging global economic climate, which has seen traditional corporate property markets such as Spain, Cyprus, France and Dubai experience considerable drops in demand for property.

The increasing demand for real estate in Egypt is undoubtedly driven by the country's thriving tourism industry. Over the past two years an increasing number of budget airlines have started to offer a wide range of low-cost flights to destinations throughout the Red Sea region from the UK. This has resulted in a large number of people visiting the region for the first time, as they look for alternatives to the more expensive Eurozone destinations.

As with so many emerging property markets, this growth in tourism has led to an inevitable increase in demand for property in Egypt. Only last week, Credit Suisse, the leading European investment bank stated that they expected Egyptian property stocks outperform those throughout the rest of the Middle East and North Africa in 2010.

Although there are numerous new projects being developed throughout the major cities, the focus of the demand for property in Egypt has surrounded the booming tourist industry in the Red Sea Resort. Destinations including Sharm El Sheikh, Sahl Hasheesh, Hurghada and the new resort of Nabq Bay have seen considerable growth in the past couple of years as increasing numbers of tourists visit each year.

Today, a large number of low cost airlines including Jet2, Easyjet and Monarch offer cheap flights to both Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh international airports on an almost daily basis, and as such the demand for holiday rental property in Egypt has accordingly. With the numbers of tourists expected to continue for the foreseeable future, it's easy to see why so many people are looking to purchase a slice of the Red Sea lifestyle.