Press Release Summary = While it remains at the top of the pile for UK citizens looking to buy abroad, be it to live or to buy-to-let, Spain is a place about which would-be investors have been sent mixed signals of late. Following the correction earlier this year, there have been those saying the market is about to collapse and those saying it will ride out the storm comfortably.
Press Release Body = While it remains at the top of the pile for UK citizens looking to buy abroad, be it to live or to buy-to-let, Spain is a place about which would-be investors have been sent mixed signals of late. Following the correction earlier this year, there have been those saying the market is about to collapse and those saying it will ride out the storm comfortably.
The real answer, according to Mark Stucklin, a spokesman for Spanishpropertyinsight.com , is a little more complex. He states that it lies in choosing where, what and why to buy, rather than simply investing in Spain per se. Pointing to \"slick\" salespeople who entice people to buy without thinking through their purposes as a major reason things go wrong for some, he said: \"If it is an investment it is something that is going to increase in value or be a good rental option and so many of the things that people are buying now are neither of those two.\"
He said it was essential that investors knew first of all about the place where they were buying and why people bought there. Examples of this were coastal resorts filled with golf courses and islands like Ibiza which attracted younger couples. Above all, he said, people should not go where all the other investors did - those who invested this way were \"doomed\".
So what is the answer? Mr Stucklin said the best thing was to invest in a well established \"liquid market\", where property can be sold easily and quickly, as well as doing own research rather than listening to the salespeople.
In fact, this is a common-sense approach to buying abroad widely repeated by those who know their overseas property. Even the Sun gave its readers the benefit of similar wisdom recently; its top two pieces of advice being about investigating and researching an area both for its rental return potential and the longer-term prospects for the area.
After this, it added plenty of things every overseas buyer should know: not to sign a foreign language contract without understanding it, being aware of issues of law and tax, getting a bank account in the country and not rushing into a decision.
As ever, so much to do with overseas property buying lies outside the fluctuations and corrections that take place on a macroeconomic basis. Much depends on more local circumstances. But above all, so much depends, purely and simply, on common sense, on buying the right property, in the right place, for the right reason.
2012
