"A Welsh immigrant confidently fulfilled her dream of owning her own agency on the Costa del Sol."

In mid-2003, Zoe Miles packed up her Volkswagen camper van and headed "as far south as possible" from her home in rainy Wales. With her two young children and her ex-partner in tow, they eventually arrived in a remote, dusty corner of the Iberian Peninsula, not far from Mocarar. It was a new dream of a new life that they both pursued, but the cost of buying a home there unfortunately did not match their budget. "I really liked the idea of Mocarar, where I worked as a nanny when I was17, but we just couldn't afford to buy anything there," explains Zoe,40, from Olvera Properties.

"Then we noticed a house at the market in the inner city of Olvera, which cost only27,000 euros and had a garden. "It seemed perfect, and after viewing nine more neighboring properties, we decided to purchase it." Continues the mother of four: "Like many people, we quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to get what we wanted on the coast, so we simply moved inland."".""

The former customer service manager soon got down to business, along with his partner, renovating the house and, most importantly, learning the local language. In Olvera, a charming town nestled between Ronda and Seville, there were few foreigners living, and hardly any locals spoke English. "I knew I had to learn the local language, so I found the biggest Spanish-English dictionary I could and just memorized hundreds, then thousands of words," she says.

Her rapid improvement in language proficiency soon led to other buyers asking her for help with local issues, which led to a job at a rapidly growing real estateagency organized by another expat couple, Melanie and Anthony, from their home in the heart of the city. By2005, the market had gone "crazy," and the new agency was inundated with buyers looking for properties within a radius of about50 miles around the city, including Ronda, Sahara, and Algodonales. "We were carefree in2005 and2006, with so many buyers, sometimes four or five a day, to take care of," Zoe explains.

In one week, we were able to sell even six properties. But in2008, the economic crisis started, and by2009, we were lucky if we sold one property in a month. So what did she do?

"In2010, we had a whole six months without sales. It was a very tough time." At the same time, she gave birth to two more children and eventually teamed up with another business partner, Anne Mary, who was also from Wales. However, trading continued to remain difficult, but somehow they managed to survive (Zoe had to spend most of the year working in the UK), and by2016, the market finally began to change..

After many years of rising prices, the number of buyers is increasing, along with the average price of real estate. "In the last couple of years, things have really taken off," says Zoe. "Last year was very successful, and the first half of 2018 has gone wonderfully. But the amounts that buyers are bringing have significantly increased, and while two years ago clients were looking at townhouses that we sold for 40,000 - 50,000 euros, now most clients come with amounts ranging from 70,000 to 80,000 euros, and we are definitely seeing more interest. "Nowadays, there are also many more buyers of country properties in the price range of 250,000 euros," she adds.

And it's no surprise, considering how stunning the surrounding area is, with landscapes and views reminiscent of the highlands of Scotland or Snowdonia, but with sunshine. Olvera Properties has just over 300 properties listed. "We know each property inside and out and are very good at matching homes to buyers," explains Zoe, adding that most of her clients are British.