With the price of UK property seemingly getting higher every year many people have tured to foreign property to either get on the ladder or find a more affordable place to buy an apartment or villa.
Purchasing property is never cheap so you must do your homework on whatever country you are interested in but this is only the beginning. You'll have to finance your project as well as plan for the long term. Will you want to rent the property out? If yes, you'll have to find out what the rental market is like in the area. If you are relying on rental income to pay your mortgage you will need to make sure you can keep the property occupied. This may be a daunting prospect if you happen to live several thousand miles away. It is a good idea to find somebody local to keep an eye on the place and make sure they have a good reputation and come highly recommended.
When you first plan on purchasing abroad you'll want to go and check out your areas of interest. Like with anything, don't buy the first thing you see. Check out the whole area and don't be forced into anything by pushy agents. It's your money and it's a big decision so take your time. Make sure you have a car or transport to get around and take note of all local services, transport, roads, airports, shops, restaurants and other facilites. If there is not much going on there may not be many tourists around either (although that may be just what you are after). Find out about crime in the area and speak to as many locals as you can. If there are ex-pats around they can probably give you good information too.
If you do find a property that you like, be sure and calculate all of the costs involved. We pay a lot of taxes and fees in the UK but these can be higher in Europe so make sure that you stick to your budget, If you need to get a mortgage there will be plenty of help available and many developers will offer mortgage packages but again do your own research and don't rely on anyone else to find you a deal. You can have no complaints if you can't be bothered to put the effort in.
Check out property prices in the area and try to find out how much these have been going up or down in the last few years. You'll also need to know how much local taxes and utilites will cost you. There are usually connection fees aswell for services such as electricity and water.
Don't hand over any money until you have full legal representation. Make sure building licences and planning permissions are in place too.
There is a holiday or foreign investment property for everyone out there. If you put the work in and research properly, you won't be disappointed.
