In a rare bit of good news for the property market on the Costa del Sol, low cost carrier Ryanair has just opened 4 new routes between Malaga airport and the United Kingdom, making the Costa del Sol more accessible to tens of thousands of potential British holiday home buyers a year.

Ryanair’s air hostesses Nicola models a life jacket in the Ryanair charity calendar. Ideal for British property investors who have lost their shirts on the Costa del Sol.

Adding to 10 destinations Ryanair already flies from Malaga, the low-cost carrier will now offer no-frills flights to Glasgow Prestwick, London Stansted, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. The carrier forecasts 240,000 new passengers a year on the new routes.

This contrasts with Ryanair’s decision last week to abandon its hub at Valencia airport on the Costa Blanca.

Ryanair now flies to Birmingham daily from Malaga, and expects 100,000 passengers on this route alone.

Uptake on the new routes has been excellent, say Ryanair. In just days since announcing the new routes the company has already sold 5,000 tickets for Glasgow, 6,000 for London, 5,500 for Edinburgh, and 13,000 for Birmingham.

Accessibility is a key driver of demand for property, so Ryanair’s new routes can only be good news for the Costa del Sol’s struggling property market. Despite a temporary slump in British demand for Spanish property, with buyers turned off by exaggerated prices, mindless development, and property scandals, Britons are still the Costa del Sol’s most important ‘export’ market. Greater accessibility should help stimulate demand as the coast slowly cleans up its act, and downward price pressures start offering good value.