Property Mart Overseas

PROPERTY MART OVERSEAS

In early 2007, the average home in LONDON crossed the £300,000 barrier for the first time. The city is home to tens of thousands of property millionaires, many of whom have jobs which couldn't cover a mortgage on a two bedroom flat nowadays but who purchased houses over twenty years ago, when the market was more proportional to the average wage. What's more, many of these property millionaires are either coming to the end of their mortgages or have paid them off entirely. This means that a lot of people have a decent amount of money to invest in property elsewhere.

One popular choice for London-based property investors is PROPERTY IN ITALY. Britain and Italy share a number of cultural ties and many people are DRAWN to the prospect of leaving the urban grind of London for the fresh air and fantastic food of the Italian countryside. Many people dream of retiring to a place in Southern Italy for long, hot summers and mild winters. Property prices are significantly lower than in the UK, although not quite comparable to PROPERTY IN BULGARIA, which has become extremely desirable in recent years.

Southern Europe is a natural choice for a second home. Almost the whole region is well served by air links from the UK, while the tourism industry in the region is booming, making for very comfortable conditions for British buyers. PROPERTY IN ROMANIA and Romanian property may not have been at the top of most investor's lists of desirable locations ten years ago, but nowadays it is a different story. Early investors returned with huge profits and stories of cottages costing less than a USA HOLIDAY, leading to a surge in interest and investment in these developing markets. The region offers gloriously warm and dry summers, along with great skiing conditions during the winter months. Ski properties in the region are considerably cheaper than equivalent PROPERTIES IN ANDORRA, France or Austria.

The London investors generally fall into two categories - those who are buying a second home to use for holidays and those who are looking at a foreign property solely as an investment. Of course, there is a middle ground, where investors purchase and furnish a property, live in it for a couple of weeks each year and then lease it out for SHORT-TERM rentals during the rest of the year. This can prove more profitable as weekly rental costs more, however it is more work and the upkeep required for the house will almost always be significantly higher than for a long term lease or if you are looking at keeping the home for yourself.

Decades ago, PROPERTIES IN SPAIN were seen as the ideal investment properties and the booming market there has made a lot of early British investors very wealthy (on paper, at any rate). Now is the ideal time to invest in a new property abroad.