Buying a property overseas

trippy

It has always been a dream of mine to have a bolthole in another country and have now been watching too many 'Holiday in the sun' programmes!

We are due to get some money shortly so I feel now might be the time to start thinking seriously about buying something somewhere. I wondered if there were any good places to start/ links etc. that would set me on my way.

I don't have a fixed idea where I would want to be. Preferably somewhere where a budget airline flies too so we could take advantage of 1p flights etc. Just somewhere that's not home really. It's not necessarily to be as an investment although it would help.

Any tips/ pointers? I'm surprised there's not a sticky for this or a separate forum as MSE is surely the first port of call for these kinds of questions?

Guy_Montag

Don't expect 1p fares to last forever.

zico_2

Hi Trippy
We did it nearly 3 years ago, but I have to say that it has continued to be a learning experience! We bought a brand new apartment off plan on the Portuguese/Spain border, Costa de la Luz. It is not well known by the british tourists so very spanish, and quite cheap to eat out. We are within driving distance of Faro and Seville airport so often get cheap flights on ryanair to Seville, occasionally cheap flights to Faro.
We are looking at the property as my pension plan. We do rent out, but the rental income is nowhere near what the sales pitch predicted! Also you need to have someone on hand near your property to keep an eye on it and help with repairs/cleaning if you rent out.
Things I wish I had known - mainly that ground floor apartments suffer noise from upstairs more in properties where there are marble floors! High heels make a lot of noise. Check out mortgages, if you need one, the costs are high in Spain when buying new, @10% of purchase price for alll costs.
Communal charges start low for new build but after a year it becomes obvious that they will need to rise to keep up with the maintenance of the community. Local taxes are less in Spain than UK. Check to see if local amenities are planned, often communities are built and then the commercial centres do not follow which can be a pain and may reduce potentail rental income. I would suggest you go to an area you like, not in high season, and investigate on your own, often low season gives you a clearer picture of what will be available to you when the tourists are gone! If you go with the companies that advertise you are often subject to high pressure sales pitch, but if you know what you want and how much you want to spend and can resist the sales techniques you may want to try them!
PM me if you want to chat more.
good luck

seven-day-weekend

Have a look in 'silver savers' board, there is a sticky at the top which hopefully will help you.