CHEAP package tours, nasty high-rise flats and English breakfast joints jostling for business on the seafront have not done much for Tenerife’s reputation. To most people, the island does not evoke an image of luxury property developments, G&Ts after a round of golf, or designer shopping in posh plazas. But bit by bit this Canary island is reinventing itself.

The Government has invested in roads and telephone networks, golf courses and marinas, the Playa de las Americas has been cleaned up, and the island “beautified” with trees and plants, says Leslie Beeson, of Savills’ associate estate agency, Tenerife Property Shop. “Twenty years ago Tenerife was a jet-set destination. But the availability of cheap accommodation and the growth of package holidays turned the island into a mass-tourism destination.”

Tenerife, which is 300km to the west of Morocco, is only a four-hour flight from the UK and has clear attractions with its year-round sunshine — average winter temperatures in the south rarely dip below the low 20s. More and more regular low-cost routes are being introduced from the UK.

Glossy shopping esplanades with Cartier, Versace, Escada and Hugo Boss designer brands on offer bear testimony to how Tenerife is changing. So does the contemporary Auditorium of Tenerife conference centre in Santa Cruz in the north, which has a 1,700-seat main hall.

Five-star hotels such as the 482-room Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque Resort (a member of The Leading Hotels of the World group) in Fañabe, west of Las Americas, are also putting Tenerife on the map for wealthy visitors — a spa is due to open here next year. And smaller rural hotels are benefiting from the rise in independent travellers. Ray and Sheila Atkins, who opened La Bodega (www.tenerife-labodega.com), a group of self-catering cottages, in 2004 say that demand has grown steadily and many of their guests come back again and again. Now property buyers with deep pockets are starting to rediscover the island.

Beeson says: “There has been a moratorium on touristic building since 2001; permission for new hotels is for five stars only and rural tourism is being encouraged. The idea has been to get the moneyed holidaymaker back. It has been working and we have had increased demand for luxury accommodation in the past three years.” The developments springing up around the island’s golf courses are high-spec, with good-quality interiors — no battery-hen blocks of poor-quality apartments. Bruce Grindley, who founded Tenerife Property Shop with his partner Mary Spencer 19 years ago, says: “Our traditional buyers already know Tenerife, but now we are getting more and more people who have never been here before. They have budgets between €300,000 and €500,000 (£202,000 and £337,000). People want quality property — it’s got to be good, it’s got to be sizeable. They are willing to spend the money to get what they want.”

The San Blas Village development of 116 Canaries-style properties, which recently won a prize at the Bentley International Property Awards, is set between a nature reserve and a beach, just a ten-minute drive from Las Americas and near the Golf del Sur. It is still being built but, when finished, residents at San Blas Village will enjoy five-star hotel services (such as room service), swimming pools, a man-made lake, bars, restaurants and health spa. Prices for the remaining three-bedroom villas start at €397,800 and go up to €571,700.

Grindley says: “San Blas is fantastic because prices haven’t jumped up yet, but they will. It has the best potential for rental income because of all the hotel facilities, the nature reserve and the spa. In the next five years you will have people staying in the five-star hotel — they will be looking across at the villas, and I think the demand will bump up prices. It has not just good potential for capital growth, but also the potential for extremely good rental income.”

Of the five golf courses in the south of the island, Amarilla Golf, which is next to Golf del Sur, has had the most recent property developments. Palm Ridge, a development of 18 villas and 25 apartments, is almost sold out. Palm Gardens is a development of 56 two and three-bedroom apartments and duplexes with prices ranging from €270,000 to €353,000. A new marina is also being built there. Grindley says: “Palm Gardens is selling well — we released that a week ago and we ’ve sold six. All the apartments will have spectacular views over the golf course, but work won’t start until January or February next year.”

Golf Island Villas, a development of detached and semi-detached villas surrounded by three fairways in Amarilla Golf, will also be released soon. Prices will be in the region of €550,000 to €650,000 for four bedrooms.

Upmarket indeed. And as those British breakfast eateries are eclipsed little by little by expensive Teppanyaki restaurants, so too can Tenerife build itself a whole new image.

Tenerife Property Shop, 0871 8716131, www.tenerifepropertyshop.com; Savills, 020 7016 3740, www.savills.com/abroad www.timesonline.co.uk/overseasproperty

FOR SALE

THIS €520,000 three-bedroom detached villa, above, on the Costa Adeje, about 6km northwest of Las Americas, has a private pool and sun terraces. If golf is more your bag, this €450,000 three-bedroom house, below, on Golf del Sur, has two bathrooms, a walk-in dressing room, utility room, and a living room that opens on to a terrace and garden. Contact: Escapes2, 0161-351 2160, www.escapes2.com

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