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Back to overseas property main page Countries to consider - overviewIntroduction In deciding which countries and regions are of most interest to you, a number of factors are likely to influence you including some of the following list, however not all may necessarily be of relevance or important to you and you may have specific requirements that make some places particularly attractive or rule out many. There may also be other factors that are of importance to you that we have not mentioned.
Overriding all of this is, for very many people, familiarity, where people have been before so if they have been on many Spanish holidays and enjoyed them and never to Malta, or Croatia, it is far more likely that they will be attracted to Spain. If business travel has taken them to the USA and they have enjoyed the culture, enjoyed meeting and talking with the people and enjoyed their leisure time, it is likely that the USA will be attractive to them. Personal interests is another major factor, for some heaven is sitting in the sun doing nothing, to others including me this is more a picture of hell, and they want to explore, learn, experience, and be stimulated. Some will be interested in sports, skiing, water sports, some will sleep all day and party all night, while others will not be into either of these. Some will want to take their family, and for small children to be welcome, while some others want no children present at all, some want piece and quiet, some want music and noise. Some want the steamier side of life, others to avoid this. Some want to shop, others to never get their wallet out for the whole holiday. Some want to flavour and enjoy the local food and wine, others to eat fish and chips. Families, couples and groups are made up of people who may have similarities but also different needs, and interests, so in many cases a chosen place has to offer a range of things for the different members of the family or group. Personal safety is another major concern, particularly with families, crime, political stability, and a fair judicial system, with no more corruption than we ignore at home. Lets take a look at a few of the factors that are often considered of specific importance. Climate There is no ideal climate anywhere on the planet, all places have variation and times that are not as attractive. Having said this you can often expect with a greater degree of certainty to have the weather of your choice in some places than others. Further research however will show that many of the assumptions people make about specific places are wrong, particularly in relation to it being warmer the further south you go and colder the further north, and from this guessing the local climate of a place throughout the year. While generally we may see warmer weather on the Mediterranean coast than in Britain, many of the areas in between can be wetter and colder than either, for at least some of the year. Similarly the assumption that a more southern climate is better for your health, again may not turn out to be true in that some conditions respond better to a humid condition, others to a dry condition, as well as to temperature, diet and more. You therefore need to consider individual conditions and individual solutions. Mood is often referred to as a sunny outlook or dark mood, so again many may assume that more sun equates to a better outlook on life. While to a large degree this is true, with depression being more prevalent in darker areas, people also require a purpose in life and stimulation, and want to be able to move about outside, enjoy their garden and some at least may feel imprisoned by too much sun. In the summer the days are significantly longer the further north you go, and some may feel more upbeat and enjoy going out more evenings, as well as feel safer, when they are light. Some places have dual climates, so for example in the summer you can go in one direction to the beach, and in winter in the other to go skiing, a number of places meet this need. Some places may be pleasantly warm in summer and picturesque in the snow and ice in winter, Niagara falls on the USA/Canadian border being a good example. Travel time To travel anywhere takes time, and the door to door time to any location outside the UK, is not likely to be under 6 hours and probably much longer, by the time you allow getting to the airport, needing to arrive in time to book in, the flight and getting through formalities and on to your destination. Proportionately therefore the difference between a shorter and longer flight is not as great as you may initially think, meaning that an hour flight equates to a 6 hour journey and a 3 hour flight to an 8 hour journey. The most stressful part of any travel is in getting to the airport on time, particularly if there are problems with the traffic, waiting about at airports, flight delays and formalities. Even where people are nervous of flying it is the take off and landing that concerns them most, so extending the time on the flight is not as much a problem. Within Europe, particularly with budget airlines who have planes running with faster turn around, and no spare planes, delays and problems are more likely to be present than with major carriers on longer flights. You are also far more likely to experience industrial action problems, interrupting flights in Europe, than in many other areas. When you arrive at the airport in your destination country, this can be a considerable difference from the city or area listed and involve you in a long additional journey and often considerable extra cost. This is particularly noticeable with some of the budget flights. Therefore when selecting flights, it does not make sense to select them on the headline fare rate and stated location alone without further investigation. Over a series of flights, the average actual door to door travel time may well turn out to be the same, with a property in Spain as it would be in Florida, and costs not as different as they may first appear as the long haul flights are represented as a complete price while many of the budget flights have many extras to add on, including taxes, and food and drinks on board. Also many European cheap flights are represented as the one way fair while longer flights are the return cost. There are many times and routes where it is more expensive to fly within Europe than to fly from the UK to a location in the USA. Not all cheap flights take you to where you want to go, some even land in a different country, so the time and cost to complete the journey from the landing place has to be considered. On the return flight some countries like the UK will want you to be there 3 hours early others like the USA don't have this requirements so can shorten the effective time by 2 or more hours. With greater reliability and service, its a far lot les hassle as well. If you were to take the total door to door time in both directions over a number of trips, you would be probably surprised to discover that American holidays involved less travel time, than any others. Cost Unless you have really done your homework, a holiday home should be viewed as a luxury, and you should be able to fund not only its purchase and fitting out, but also its running costs from your existing income and resources without putting your home at risk or a strain on your current life style. (See also Will you make or lose money) If you are to use a mortgage for a European property, although more expensive to have a UK mortgage in pounds than a euro mortgage, at least you will know exactly what your outgoings are and they will not change rapidly with the rate of the pound against the euro. It may be at some point that in an attempt to align the pound to allow Britain to join the Euro the value if the pound is drastically reduced, or that through some other action the euro recovers considerably, in either case the size of your debt and mortgage payments could become much greater, even double. As a general rule any mortgage should be in the same currency as the funding for it. Therefore investment properties let to local people perhaps are more sensible in the local currency and properties that are for holiday use or for letting to others from Britain are better in UK pounds. When considering the cost of properties, you need to consider like with like. The best way to do this is to cost each prospective property to the same condition, for example done up, and fully furnished ready for use. You will come across many 'Bargains' run down properties that in Britain would make sense to snap up and renovate, but in the local climate the cost of repairing them may be considerably greater than the cost of getting a plot and building a new house. Likewise the common practice of buying off plan from a developer with a large marketing operation, may be far more expensive than finding a local builder and a plot and getting a more ideal house of much greater net worth built for you. In many of the package deals that are popular with British buyers it is the convenience factor, and lack of an understanding of the local market, that results in them often spending well over what they need to, both in the purchase and in ongoing costs. Similarly when buying out of Europe, you ideally should know what is on offer privately or through agents in the area as well as that highly marketed through international marketing operations. In Florida for example, property depreciates to start, and therefore finding a property a few years old may be considerably cheaper than the house on a new development. In many parts of the USA you can pick up nice properties at prices that would seem unbelievable by both British and European pricing, buy with less formalities, quicker, and let them easier if you decide after all that you will not be using it yourself for a few years. As you go further from the larger more wealthier countries of Europe the cost of property reduces as do the running costs. As you might expect, a small or in some cases a not so small place in some distant countries are nearly free and you could employ a local or several, to look after it for you full time, living in, all for a very small cost by our standards. The saving in what you would have been paying on a mortgage on a European property would finance quite a lot of airline tickets. If the desire was there you could also make a considerable difference to the local community, and become really significant to the adopted area, all within the budget that you could laze in the sun in Europe. It may be that you are looking at a balance, value for money, an enjoyable place to go.......... Risk Risk can involve personal risk as in the case of crime, risk from corrupt officials or institutional risk as in the case of Spain where non Spanish owners of larger country properties having spent money on buying them and restoring or building them, find new laws that allow Spanish developers to take their land to use for developments, charge the owner of the land for providing services to the development land, or for property to be compulsorily purchased and effectively confiscated with tiny rates of compensation. In some countries the future stability may be questionable, or land owning rules still in a state of change. Probably the safest places to own property outside the UK is the USA and Canada. If you have a problem in another country, as in the case of British owners being defrauded of their land in Spain, you cannot expect the British government to do anything, except possibly make a few small noises, but not enough to upset anyone. It is therefore important that you have advice and support before you purchase property outside the UK from those who understand the countries legal system, and can warn you of the risks. Don't be mislead by sales people who tell you its media hype or only affects a few people, in Spain the land grab and cost problem has affected many thousands of British people who have been persuaded to invest there and bankrupted a lot of pensioners who thought that it would be a safe place to retire to. Some estimates suggest its affected over 100,000 people, so no small problem. Crime rates and discussion on corruption may be misleading as some countries will report all events, and admit they have a problem, then attempt to tackle it, while as in Britain, some others may choose to pretend that corruption does not exist and cover up any evidence to suggest corruption within local authorities, police and other officials. The risk of crime may also vary enormously from one area to another, major city areas often presenting more risk, while in country areas crime is not experienced. Even areas quite close together can present totally different feel safe conditions. Opportunities Many of the overseas buying programmes that are featured on TV involve people buying run down property and then renovating them. As we have mentioned before in many countries the cost of repairing old property is not considered viable where there is more land available and the cost of building a new property is less than the cost of restoration. Local red tape may also put many off, even when they understand it, can speak the language and have local contacts. Another problem is often that inheritance arrangements have resulted in the ownership of the property being shared by many people. For these and other reasons a large amount of this property has been empty for a very long time, even to the point that on occasions roofs have fallen in etc. In many of these cases it is in reality not the property that you are buying but the location, and it may be that you see potential in the location, and are prepared to buy it, with a vision as to what you could end up with there. On some other occasions the old mill, farm house or other building may have a degree of character or historic interest that you feel will appeal to you and others looking for a holiday home in the sun. The opportunity is not so much that you have found the property, but that you can see a market for it that others cannot see. This is not unique to Europe. Some years ago I was offered a number of houses for free, if I repaired them, in a picturesque part of Britain by a farmer who was fed up with people like me who were telling him they could be restored. In South Wales historically people did not want to climb hills after a day down the mine, so even today in the locals eyes, the property at the bottom of hills is more sought after and therefore more valuable than the property further up with stunning views. If you have a net outflow of people from an area, the poorest houses are usually allowed to fall down first and eventually the lot may be. Applying this to spotting an opportunity abroad, you are often not buying a property as you would in Britain but a piece of waste land with a property on it that is viewed by the locals as needing clearing before you could build a new home there. You can see therefore that what may appear to be an absolute bargain buy from your perspective, can also appear to be a fool throwing away his money to the locals, even to the point that in some countries the sound of an English voice causes asking prices to rise on the spot. Development work will often involve more red tape, cost and time than you expected, and may be particularly difficult because of language differences and the distance you are away. However if comparing like with like and you know what the finished property will be worth to others with the same desires and dreams as you, it can be a cost effective and a profitable solution, particularly where the site allows the splitting of the property to form a property for your own use and a number that can be let out. You should remember that you will need local management, and will need like all overseas property to be able to not only keep the property in good order but to cope with local taxes, utility bills etc. If a part of your plan involves developing for the local market as opposed to tourists, then you will need to get a lot of local advice as to needs, prices and occupancy expected, as well as local laws and other problems. With tourism developments you need to know that you will be allowed to let the property in the area. While often you have to move quite fast on real opportunities, the less you now about the local conditions, rules, laws etc, the greater the research and caution needed. There are many more opportunities than people taking them up, so if an opportunity passes you by or is not ideally priced, you can be confident that should you choose to look for them, there are many more to be found. Click here to go to look at a brief overview of countries you may want to consider |
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