Buying a property abroad?

Tweetinat

Hi,

I wondered if anyone has any information/advice about purchasing a holiday property abroad, in particular Turkey? We have a possible apartment built by a British developer but we'd be the second owners and are not sure about the whole process.

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks,

Natalie

ognum

My first comment on buying a home abroad is do not invest any money you cannot afford to walk away from.

If you plan to live there rent a home first and go through all four seasons an see if you still want your money to be there.

Lastly and rather cynically do not believe what you are told by the vendors, there only interest is the sale not your long term physical and mental health.

Sorry if this sound s harsh but too many people have lost their home in the UK by over extending in markets they don't understand. Do you speak Turkish, understand the legal process and know how to get your money back out of the country. If not don't buy.

ognum

Two or three months ago there was an enormous thread about buying in Turkey if you do a search you may find it.

Tweetinat

Thank you ognum.

We're not intending to live in Turkey; we're just looking for somewhere we can holiday a couple of times a year and rent the property out to friends/family when we're not there.

The money is an amount that we 'could' walk away from should we need to; we will not be taking out a mortgage and have other funds available.

We're not looking to release the cash for 10 years or so.

No, we don't speak Turkish and am looking to find out about the legal process hence my questions. I will definitely search for the other thread

BitterAndTwisted

An awful lot of people have "bought" properties in Turkey and then find out that they don't actually own it. There are restrictions for foreigners owning land or property in that country. Do not expect a Turkish lawyer to help you as many of them are in league with the developers, and I suspect these vendors are absolutely desperate to get shot of their property. Some people can't even give them away.

Turkey is possibly the very last country I would consider buying a property in.

Tweetinat

Interesting BitterAndTwisted, food for thought indeed.

We have a friend who has already bought a property at this resort and has been there a while. Obviously I haven't seen the paperwork but she assures me that she does own the property (we're not buying from her by the way). We're meeting up in the next few days to discuss the process from her point of view in more detail - I will raise this with her. Thanks.

Tweetinat

Oh and Ognum - any chance you could link to the thread you mean? I've found a few but they're quite old and the biggest is a couple of pages long so I don't think it's the one you mean. Thanks.

Trollfever

[STRIKE]Turkey,[/STRIKE][STRIKE] Egypt,[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Bulgaria, [/STRIKE]Cyprus is possibly the very last country I would consider buying a property in.

Tweetinat

In case anyone else has heard of this particular resort, it's Horizon Sky, Iasos (bay of Gulluk). It seems to be a highly regarded development having been built by a British Developer who is(was) the largest foreign developer in the region. We're not looking to buy off plan or even from the developer - it's a private sale so I'm hoping that would mean no bias from Solicitors and the Tapu can be transferred (having already been transferred into their name). We're looking to invest circa £55k.

If anyone else has any input, thoughts or even experience of Horizon Sky that would be fab. I'm processing the comments above and am grateful for the 'negative input' as it gives me things to focus on/research. Positives are nice too

G_M

I got into a bidding war on a repossession. In this country.

The ex-owner had invested heavily in a property in Cyprus. Well, one property then he got talked into a 2nd. Neither had been built.

They never were built, but he'd alraedy paid so much he couldn't keep up his mortgage back here which he'd been planning to pay from the rent from Cyprus.....

Littleweedj

ognum wrote: »

My first comment on buying a home abroad is do not invest any money you cannot afford to walk away from.

If you plan to live there rent a home first and go through all four seasons an see if you still want your money to be there.

Lastly and rather cynically do not believe what you are told by the vendors, there only interest is the sale not your long term physical and mental health.

Sorry if this sound s harsh but too many people have lost their home in the UK by over extending in markets they don't understand. Do you speak Turkish, understand the legal process and know how to get your money back out of the country. If not don't buy.

The above is a lot of very sound advice. I recently sold a property abroad (Bulgaria) and was one of the lucky ones. Currently out there it seems there are 100 properties advertised and only 1 buyer for each.

The buyers (really only Russians nowadays) want the best properties "for a song", in the best locations, with everything completely ready to walk into. I also bought, as a holiday home for myself, family, friends etc. but soon afterwards realised it was a big mistake. Didn't like the culture and corruptness which was obvious on a daily basis. The excitement died down pretty rapidly after initial euphoria and the thought of owning property abroad!!

Sold for way below buying price, but actually made a profit because of the euro/sterling rates at the time, and personally think it too unstable right now to think about buying abroad. With the eurozone as it is just now, I would agree that far better to rent and take things slowly, and may actually be much cheaper, thereby giving you lots to think about and time to make up your mind. After that, if you consider it right for you then go ahead and buy. Speaking from experience I wish I had taken this route.

Not just the asking price you will also have to pay expensive rates for Property Maintenance, Yearly Site Mainteance,Cleaning,Utility bills; metered water, electricity (and air conditioning is dear),Council tax, garbage tax, legal bills to name but a few.

Many developers/estate agents/vendors were totally corrupt, everything is different and felt I was being ripped off at every turn. Sighed with relief to be free of my apartment, even although it was absolutely gorgeous, with views to die for.

Definitely rent first, stay in and compare different areas, different months etc. draw up a budget plan for price of property with additional costs, as shown above.