Reasons for Purchasing Foreign Property• Financial and investment reasons - Increasingly, property investment is being touted as the “ultimate” fool-proof way of achieving long-term financial gains. Many people are now even using property investment as their main financial means for supporting their retirement years. The amazing in run up in housing prices over the period 2001-2007 had further reinforced this mentality in the minds of many people. However, the severe financial and economic crisis that hit most real estate markets around the globe and the subsequent collapse of housing and commercial property prices had drastically reduced the appetite of individual and institutional property investors for foreign property. It is very likely though that when this crisis is over and foreign economies return on the path of rapid growth the appetite for purchasing foreign property will also return. • Purchase of a holiday home - This is mainly for those who have the resources to purchase a property in their favourite part of the world – somewhere they enjoy visiting, perhaps where they can laze away on the beach and enjoy the fruits of a completely different environment. • For retirement reasons – Many retirees, especially, those living in the cold countries of north Europe, have been increasingly purchasing property in sunny countries with warm climates and nice beaches for retirement. Often, couples in their twilight years may find that their current life has changed dramatically. They may live in a large house (too large now the children are not longer living with them) and now wish for a slower pace of life, a better lifestyle or simply want to move in a different environment for health purposes. More elderly citizens relocate than is commonly thought. Note that according to projections, Europe will have nearly 100 million people in retirement age by 2015.
|
