Overseas property purchase

berbatov10

Does anyone here have experience of property purchase overseas, namely Lanzarote?

ognum

First let me say I know nothing about Lanzarote!

I do know about foreign home purchases and have owned a home in another country for 10 years +

The positives of foreign home ownership are

It's my home (I don't let it)
I enjoy being here
I have long term friends
I am comfortable here
It's different from my UK home
It's great to get away fromUK winters

The negatives are:
I feel I have to come here
It means I have less time to travel elsewhere
It's not a holiday
We have to do maintenance, pay bills, tax the car etc etc
It is on my mind when I'm not here
paying bills, water, electricity, insurance adds up


I would not buy another holiday home and many people I know who have them say the same, we are lucky but also a bit foolish.

Long term rent where you want to live before buying

Never invest money in a foreign country that you can't afford to walk away from.

Think very hard and think again!

berbatov10

Ognum thanks for your insight. Its something, along with a lot of other things I am musing. Though as you rightly say rent for a while there first.

movilogo

You better search in some expat forums. Buying there is very different and lot of people burnt their fingers. Definitely take good legal advice too.

DIYGirlz

Ognum - I could have written these exact words; I couldn't agree more !
I would add (depending on where you are thinking of buying of course) - make sure you can speak the language fluently, especially in all matters relating to DIY, tradesmen, maintenance etc. It's been a steep learning curve.
Would I do it again? Probably not.
Do I regret buying abroad ? No, not really, it's hard work and expensive but I love my chosen country (France) and the local people (not the tourists), culture, climate make it worthwhile.


Good luck !

silvercar

The positives of foreign home ownership are

It's my home (I don't let it)
I enjoy being here
I have long term friends
I am comfortable here
It's different from my UK home
It's great to get away fromUK winters

The negatives are:
I feel I have to come here
It means I have less time to travel elsewhere
It's not a holiday
We have to do maintenance, pay bills, tax the car etc etc
It is on my mind when I'm not here
paying bills, water, electricity, insurance adds up

I agree to a certain extent.

We let ours out as a holiday let, the rent helps pay the upkeep. We also have a managing agent locally.

When we get a decent rental income from it we use that to give ourselves a holiday elsewhere. But there is always the draw to visit. After all, that is why you bought it.

We do enjoy an extra holiday off season, no accommodation to find and Avios flights means it doesn't cost much. Gives us an opportunity to attend to stuff, but we do pace ourselves to get a holiday out of it too.