MattW

My Sister has a large wedge of cash that she wants to invest. She is considering buying a property abroad, potentially for rental income, but also to use for herself\family \friends etc.

She was thinking of looking at easy jet routes, such as Faro\Algarve, Spain, good golf income, Italy\France for Sun and Snow, or even as far a field as Florida.

Does anyone have any good\bad experiences, an idea of prices, incomes, rental %age time.


Edited to say Italy\France for sun and snow not Italy \Spain

[Edited by MattW - 1/13/2004 3:18:09 PM]

Scott Herts

My Mum and Step dad Moved out to Spain (Costa Blanca) 15 mins outside alicante (easyjet route) bought a huge plot of land and remodelled the house, extended the pool etc all in for 80k, this includes a 100ft by 100ft orchad, absolutly brilliant!! they had some money left and bought up 2 apartments in St Miguel close to a very popular golf course these 2 brand new apratments cost 32k each, this was 3 years ago and just sold one itself for 90k, there is always bargains out there!!

When they decided to go out there they contacted an agency, i will find out who that is and edit it in here, they took my parents out roughly 10 ten times at a cost of 40 quid a time each, this included flight and overnight stay while looking for places... seems like a good thing to do at the moment.

RichardC

If she can afford to buy a property outright then Spain is still a good investment. Do not get a mortgage unless you have to as you have to as you will have to pay LOTS of extra costs. I purchased a 3 bed semi 5 mins walk from the beach and 15 mins from Murcia and paid 176,000 euros in October 2002. I will be signing over next month and have been informed that the property is now worth 245,000 euros.

rawsy

Depending on how much you've got to spend, I can recommend a very interesting island in the Caribbean where it is well worth buying property at present. Rental income is good, from the Americans and Canadians holidaying there.

It is also a tax free island ;-) , and is currently experiencing the start of a property boom (IMHO !!!). I'm already in, and know of several intersting opportunities there - email my addy of you want to know more !!

Cheers

GaryK

Matt,

Just be aware buying abroad in Spain/France is costlier than here. Typcially reserve 10% of the purchase price. In Spain they have IVA which is 7%, in France I think this runs at 10%. We have a 2 bed apartment 5 mins from Marbella (for sale incidentally!!) which was £81K but with all costs ended up costing us £90K! so just be aware. If you sell you are liable for CGT just as in this country.

We have just spoken to our agent in Marbella who says that the market is abit stagnant just like it is here in the UK and hindsight being a wonderful thing I think if we had bought a similar property here in the UK at the same time we would have made at least and probably more on it and without the cost burden. That said it really depends what you want out of it, do your homework ask other people () and dont rush into it.

Would we do it again? Perhaps, bored of spain now so would be tempted to consider france. For me personally the idea of owning a property abroad was much more appealing than actually doing it if you can understand that.

cheers

Gary

EvilBevel

Matt,

I don't know much about property, but if you do want to invest, Tuscany in Italy is still one of the places that attracts tourists from over the world, especially wealthy ones

Caveat: although Italy seems pretty "lose" in some areas, building/rebuilding/innovation is very very strict, even for interiors.

And never forget: some people don't pay the rent...

MattW

Thanks for the replies guys, keep em coming.

TBH i'd think she'd see more benefit ploughing the money into a second house here and using the rental income for nice holidays.