This is the view from the back of the villa where you can see the shapes of the rooms.

The floors are being laid for the second villa’s basement and the water tanks are now finished.

This is the technical control checking the steel work for the roof and also taking samples of the concrete which they take back to the lab to check the quality. They follow the build from start to finish making sure the project is built exactly according to the plans and the quality of the materials used are of European standard for the seguro decenal.

The roof of the basement is finished and ready for pouring the concrete. The man below is controlling the flow speed of the concrete by remote control and is being directed by the builder who is pouring the roof.

The roof has taken 50 cubic metres of concrete to cover and will only take a few hours to go off.

The first blocks are being laid for the first floor of the villa.

Builders Lanzarote

All the ceiling blocks are in place. We will finish the final steel work on Monday morning ready for pouring the concrete for the roof. This will be the first stage of the major construction work completed.

The preparation for the screeding of the second villas floor

The site has been backfilled and the land has been levelled

Lanzarote builders

We have started to backfill the supporting walls. These were first damp-proofed with pitch paint and a special plastic membrane to keep out the water.

The majority of work is now completed on both of these basements. All the shuttering and cardboard columns have been removed and the concrete floor had been laid. We are now preparing the ramp down to the underground car park.

I am pleased with our progress so far, everything has gone smoothly and we are on schedule.

Lanzarote Builders.

We have finished the foundations on the second villa. The concrete has been poured, levelled and then vibrated to take out any air bubbles.

60 cubic metres of concrete have gone into the foundations, 8 lorry loads.

The last section of the basement walls have been poured along with the pillars and columns.

We use a cardboard shuttering for the columns which is removed after 24 hours.

The basement walls on the first villa are completed and we are moving the shuttering to the second site.

We have now removed the shuttering ready for the next section of wall.

The block work and steel are now finished for the second villa. The concrete will be poured early next week next after the electrician has soldered the copper wire for the earth.

The concrete lorry and pump arrive and we start pouring, the concrete is also vibrated to remove any air bubbles.

The foundations are finished for the first villa, the blocks are rendered then sealed to prevent damp. We fill in between the foundations with stone to raise the floor levels.

Steel work is started for the walls then we start shuttering.

The foundations are started for the second villa.

Overseas investors with interests in the Lanzarote property market will have been warmed by the release of the latest tourist figures for the island. Which reveal an upsurge 16.7% in British visitor numbers for the first two months of 2008. According to statistics just released by Spanish airport operator AENA.

The figures for January and February represent the first reversal of a downward trend in visitor numbers from the UK over recent years. Although this has been slight – and from a position of enormous popularity – as Lanzarote still attracted over 1 million visitors from Britain and Ireland during 2007 alone.

Many observers feared that the current credit crunch and resulting tightening of the consumer purse strings might have a negative impact upon both tourism and the property market on the island.

However, these fears have proved unfounded – and suggest that, conversely, Lanzarote might even benefit. As hard-pressed consumers eschew more expensive and exotic locations in favour of better value holiday options closer to home.

Certainly, owners of holiday rental apartments in Lanzarote aren’t complaining.

As, according to ASOLAN, the islands hoteliers association, occupancy levels rose 7% across all accommodation categories. With self-catering apartments in particular performing exceptionally well - recording occupancy of 84.19% during January and February. Which normally are amongst the quietest periods in the holiday rental calendar.

Island based holiday companies, such as White Beach Holidays and Lanzarote1 are also reporting a bumper start to the year. With forward bookings also showing double-digit growth to date on 2007 figures.

And it’s not just the British who are flocking to the island. As overall foreign visitor numbers are up by nearly 11%. With Lanzarote enjoying a particular resurgence of popularity in the Scandinavian market place – traditionally a source of decent visitor numbers back in the 1980´s, when tourism first really took off. During January and February visitor numbers from Norway and Sweden leapt by 31.1% and 61.7% respectively.

Where tourism leads, property investment tends to follow. And as previously reported by leading island property portal, Lanzarote Guidebook, demand for entry-level investments on Lanzarote – in the form of studios and apartments - remains buoyant.