Buy yourself a Spanish bargain in the December property auctions

Most homes are within minutes of a beach and 40 minutes’ drive of an airport. The properties have been vetted to ensure there is "good title", with proper planning and legal consents.

Guide prices start at £63,000 for a one-bedroom flat in Almeria and rise to £455,000 for a luxury four-bedroom villa at the fashionable La Manga sports complex in Murcia. Four strips of the Mediterranean are covered - Costa Blanca, Costa Calida, Costa Almeria and Costa del Sol.

The sale takes place at the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel in central London and is being conducted by auctioneer Barnett Ross in collaboration with A Place in the Sun magazine.

Buyers are being encouraged to inspect properties and to set a budget before making a bid as contracts are legally binding once the hammer falls. Successful buyers have to pay 10 per cent on the day and complete within eight weeks. Those who plan to pay the balance in cash can fix the amount with a currency expert so they know the exact price they will pay on completion.

None of the properties has been owned previously and none is a repossession. Guide prices are up to 50 per cent lower than the values developers originally set, say auction organisers. The auction catalogue is online at www.aplaceinthesun.com/auction_landing or call Barnett Ross on 020 8492 9449.

Up to 90,000 Britons who sold homes in Spain in the past 12 years are entitled to tax rebates averaging £13,000 following an EU court ruling. This is because non-residents were overcharged capital gains tax. For more details on reclaiming the tax, call 0845 680 3849, or visit to www.spanishtaxreclaim.co.uk.