Buying a Property Abroad - what's it all about
The past 4 - 8 years have seen a tremendous increase in the interest, purchase and
hype of buying a property abroad. The late 90's and early part of the 21st century
has seen house prices surge in the UK to record heights, this together with the
ever increasing coverage of the low cost airline destinations has given the average
man in the street the excess equity in their existing homes and easier access to
be able to think about buying and perhaps living overseas.
We've probably all been on a foreign holiday to some exciting destination, be it
Europe, The Americas or even further
afield and admit it whenever we've seen a local estate agent we always make a beeline
for their shop window if not to compare the prices to back in the UK then certainly
to see how and what we could afford - we've been doing it for years without really
considering the possibilities.
4 years ago the number of properties owned by people from the UK hovered at around
170,000. Now there are over 1million Brits owning second homes in
Spain and France alone, and
figures from the Office for National Statistics recently revealed that around 200,000
Britons travel abroad every year in search of buying a property with the intention
of staying for a minimum of 12 months.
The main question we at property-abroad.com are asked by investors and holiday home
seekers is "where should we buy"? A difficult question to answer because
every person's idea of owning overseas
investment property or off
plan developments is completely different. We have a selection of questions
that we ask client to consider when thinking of buying abroad which include:
- Budget - how much do you want to or can you spend. Do you need a mortgage or finance?
- Location - is location important for you? Beach, countryside or town?
- Use - personal for holidays or purely investment or a bit of both?
- Access - is getting to your property easily and cheaply important to you?
- Employment - will you need to work what is the employment situation?
- Schooling - do you need to consider such things as schooling for your children?
- Size - will a one bed apartment be big enough or do you need to consider a 4 bed
town house or villa?
- Rentability - is it going to be a necessity to rent your property out to help with
mortgage payments?
Although we have over 300 different websites and feature over 70,000 properties
for sale in over 50 different countries abroad no two enquiries are ever the same
and as such we treat each enquiry on a personal basis. We feature properties for
sale directly from local estate agents and developers in every country.
What about the legalities
Buying a property abroad can be relatively straightforward - there's nothing really
complicated as long as you follow instructions and use a reliable legal representative
- whether they are from the country concerned or from the UK - it will make you
feel more at ease and will help things to run smoothly. We feature various guides
and books on buying property abroad on our website and apart from various little
peculiarities in certain countries most overseas property purchases can run smoothly.
Overseas Mortgages
Financing your overseas property is a lot easier now than it was a couple of years
ago. Mortgages for buying property
abroad can be arranged through high street banks like the Abbey National,
Nat West and Barclays. However, you may need to look at specialist lenders for new
and emerging countries like Turkey,
Bulgaria, and
Croatia etc.
Consideration should also be given to obtaining a mortgage in the country that you
are buying in - things like euro mortgages can often work out cheaper than UK lenders
but be aware of the changing exchange rate. Typical loan to value %'s can range
from 60 - 80% depending on the country.
Holiday Home Insurance
As with all major purchases insurance must play a part in your overall budget plan.
We would strongly recommend that adequate property and contents insurance is taken
out to cover your investment as it grows. Although you don't anticipate any problems
arising with your new home you certainly want to ensure that your investment is
covered against loss and damage.
Although there are a number of UK based companies that will offer
Overseas Property Insurance - you will also find that there are local companies
able to offer similar coverage in each country.
Most of us here in the UK are already home owners and there exists a continuing
strong demand for our little piece of England.
However, there exists a growing sector of young people who are unable to climb on
the UK property ladder because of the high cost of entry property prices and as
such are entering the overseas property market as a means to secure some foot holding
on an emerging property market.
A Place in the Sun - Channel 4's property programme recently compiled their list
of the 20 best places to buy a property abroad for investment purposes. To refresh
your memory we have included those destinations below in ascending order from the
best to the least projected returns on investments.
Types of Properties we Feature
With over 50 countries covered in our overseas property
database prices of properties for sale in the areas above can range from a plot
of land in the Bahamas from £2000
right up to a country holiday complex in Tuscany for over £33 million. Typical
property prices in the likes of Romania
stand at around the £10-15,000 mark for a decent property in the outlining
areas whereas £5,000 + will get you a rural property requiring renovation
and upwards of £30,000 will buy you something very near to the city of
Bucharest.
Our Tip
The property market in Poland is our
tip for rapid future growth as we consider the country to have the best prospects
of all current EU members.
There are a huge number of international companies, such as Tesco's and GSK, beginning
to set up offices, shops and warehousing in the country - this together with over
EUR70 billion of European funding earmarked for the country over the next 8 years
or so can only indicate the anticipated growth in employment, housing and infrastructure.
Together with our Polish partners we are currently busy identifying new opportunities
within the country and will soon be marketing off-plan developments in Poland throughout
our massive infrastructure of websites.
As we become more and more daring in our ventures of overseas holidays then the
great British public will continue to conquer new and exciting areas of the globe
in which to lay their foundations of a holiday home or indeed a permanent residence
abroad.
Whatever your reasons are for considering a move abroad then remember there's only
one company out there that can offer access to over 70,000 properties for sale worldwide
www.property-abroad.com Tel: 0845 2000 467