Buying Property Abroad — What’s it All About?
Hartlepool, Cleveland (PRWEB) November 16, 2007
A look at the ever increasing interest in buying a property abroad. What are the best places, is it a good idea and what are the pitfalls if any? Les Calvert from Property-Abroad.com answers some of your questions with his tips on what are the best areas for investment.
In the past 4 – 8 years there has been 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 even living overseas.
Sure you have all probably been on a foreign holiday to some exciting destination, be it Europe, The Americas or even further afield and admit it whenever you have seen a local estate agents estate agents window you always make a beeline for it if not to compare the prices to back in the UK then certainly to see how and what one could afford – you have probaby been doing it for years now 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.
Where should you buy a Property Abroad?
The main question that 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 an overseas investment property or off plan developments is completely different. A selection of questions that you should consider when thinking of buying property 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 property-abroad.com have over 300 different websites and feature over 70,000 properties for sale in over 70 different countries abroad “no two enquiries are ever the same and as such we treat each enquiry on a personal basis” remarks Les. They feature properties for sale directly from local estate agents, private sellers and developers in almost 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.
The website features various guides and books on buying property abroad 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.
Overseas Property Insurance
As with all major purchases insurance must play a part in your overall budget plan. Les recommends 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 earlier this year compiled their list of the 20 best places to buy a property abroad for investment purposes. To refresh your memory listed below are the destinations in ascending order from the best to the least projected returns on investments.
Romania
Poland
Portugal
The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
Belgium
Slovakia
Sweden
Finland
Hungary
Luxembourg
Germany
Czech Republic
Ireland
Austria
Netherlands
France
Italy
Spain
Cyprus
With over 70 country locations covered in their 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.
Top Tip
The property market in Poland is Les’ tip for rapid future growth as he considers 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 their Polish partners Les is currently busy identifying new opportunities within the country and will soon be marketing off-plan developments in Poland throughout his massive infrastructure of websites.
As the British buyer becomes more and more daring in his 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:
http://www.property-abroad.com
Tel: 0870 720 3210
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