Where would you buy if you were a bit of a nomad?

remorseless

Jonbvn wrote: »

But you haven't given any information for people to give a valid opinion. What does "I could afford something in London" mean?

I think here lays the problem. What would it matter if a property is valued £200k or £300k or £700k? People buy what they can afford based on income.

Are we saying that affording a £15mil Chelsea townhouse with 75% it would make sense to buy even if I don't plan to live in for more than 3 years? And buying a £250k flat with 25% deposit and monthly mortgage repayment taking 20% of my salary if I plan to live there for 15 years wouldn't make sense?

I would have thought the first question would be how long I plan to stay! No wonder there's a housing crisis.

vivatifosi

I'd actually approach this from a different angle. Where do you want to retire to? Have you got a favourite place that you like to go back to time after time? If not, then where you retirement place is, is kind of irrelevant. You might as well go for yield and increase in value.

For me, I love Barcelona, so I spend time researching the property market there. The market in Spain has a long way to recover so it may be a good investment, however there are risks, you only need to look at how unoccupied flats owned by foreigners are viewed... we are not the only country that resents that. So if there is anywhere that you really like and want to retire to, then great.

If you don't want to go back to the same place, why not pick somewhere that will give you a reasonable return and hopefully pay itself off in the time that you have until retirement? Then you can buy the Winnebago and go off touring the world knowing you have money coming in. If we weren't sure where we wanted to retire to we'd rather spend long periods in different places but still hop around a bit (maybe doing rentals for several months). That would require a different type of investment and a higher cashflow.

My uncle is an Aussie and spent many years converting a bus so he could travel around his country before he got struck down with cancer. He's still with us, but won't get to live out his dreams. So its good to dream big, but also ask what you would do if reality gets in the way.

Generali

I'd buy in the centre of one of the places you see on perfume bottles: London, Paris, Rome, NY. Maybe HK or Singapore but I don't know you can trust property rights to be respected.

Sapphire

I'd buy a stop-off place in Poland. Either Krakow, or another part of the country, for instance Bielsko-Biala, which is near mountains and forests. Poland is a beautiful country, and it is less crowded than Western Europe because a lot of the indigenous population has left for countries like the UK and Germany, and few people outside central Europe want to go there to live.

I'm thinking of a place to stay in, rather than one to make a profit from.

the_flying_pig

remorseless wrote: »

I have been tossing around with the idea that I need to buy something in London and don’t really know what to do! Both my partner and I are nomadic in nature, we absolutely love to explore the world and have been moving around countries for decades, luckily we both have jobs that allow us to do so, speak languages so integrating makes it easier. No plan for kids, dependants, nothing.

I could afford something in London, I have enough deposit and possibly even the criteria for a mortgage (in principle at least), though I am wondering if it’d make sense [financially] for me to buy something in London. we haven’t really got a plan for how long we would like to stay, we have no restrictions either so it’s up to us. We could always go back home or somewhere else.

I already own a property in a country I consider ‘home’, it’s mortgage free, I have full right to stay there but because I am here I rent it out (and yielding way better than anything in London and most of UK). I could buy something else somewhere else where we might retire in few decades… rent is barely 20% of our income and I manage to save 50% of my net income whilst contributing to my UK pension (private).

With the current London house-prices, what would you do? Genuine advice please….

I suppose the answer sorts of depends on stuff like your budget; your favored style of accommodation [e.g. size, garden, & so on]; & the things that you'd like to be near [e.g. an employer, family, friends, 'amenities', etc]

michaels

Is the question really whether over a medium timescale (guessing 10 to 15 years) it would be better to rent or buy in London?

kabayiri

Canal boat

Mind, are there any mooring bays left down in the SE now? Haven't they been snapped up by the trendies?

remorseless

michaels wrote: »

Is the question really whether over a medium timescale (guessing 10 to 15 years) it would be better to rent or buy in London?

absolutely spot on, given my track record, I wouldn't go further than 5/7 years

chewmylegoff

remorseless wrote: »

You're a bit bitter! You'd be surprised how many people live in the capital and not necessarily in a crackden! There's a lot in between.

Thank you - but I don't think your opinion would matter much.

Why is that bitter? Just pointing out that you asked how long a piece of string is. I am well aware what London is like having lived all over it since 1997.

ancientofdays

Narrowboat! No idea of the resale value if you decide to go home but it would be fun