Spain and France prove enduringly popular.A
huge demand for homes in the sun has seen Britons' spending
on properties overseas increase by 45 per cent in four years.
The number of them owning second homes abroad now exceeds
a quarter of a million people, at 257,000. More Britons
are buying overseas properties. The official Social Trends
report today says British families have invested more than
£23 billion in overseas property, with most of that
invested in Spain and France although increasing numbers
are turning to Canada, the Caribbean and New Zealand. The
Office for National Statistics says more than a million
British families own a second home, the vast majority of
which (72 per cent) are in England, with five per cent in
Wales and Scotland, and the remainder overseas.
"In recent years the increasing affordability
and accessibility of foreign property markets has contributed
to a rise in the number of UK households that own second
homes abroad,'' the report says. Between 1999-2000 and 2003-4
the number increased by 45 per cent." Spain accounted
for 27 per cent of all second homes abroad, followed by
France at 20 per cent.
But in 2003-4 over a third of all homes owned
abroad were outside Europe, with property ownership by Britons
increasingly common in places such as the United States,
Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, New Zealand, Pakistan,
South Africa and Sri Lanka. There is also a strong demand
in more adventurous locations.
Spain and France are still the most popular
destinations but we have seen increased interest for investment
property in Bulgaria and Dubai. Even Canada and Switzerland
have seen their fortunes rise and new locations pop up all
the time, including Egypt, Brazil, Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic.'
The Association of British Travel Agents
estimates that home ownership abroad will double over the
next five to seven years. The Spanish Ministry of Tourism
predicts that more than one million foreigners will set
up home on the Spanish coast in the next six years, a figure
expected to treble by 2025.
Realistically the minimum you can spend is
£145,000 for a two-bed apartment, or £210,000
if it is in Marbella. The Costa del Sol is not the place
to buy if you are looking for a good investment. You can
still buy places for a song in northern Spain and inland,
but northern Spain tends to be rainy and without the bars
and if you are inland you might not be near the airport,
or have a phone connection, or the property might need a
lot of work.'
Recent research suggested some young Britons
were looking abroad to take their first step on the property
ladder because house prices were too high in Britain. A
poll of more than 4,600 adults, conducted by YouGov, found
that nearly half of the 18- to 29-year-olds questioned planned
to buy abroad, with two thirds saying their foreign investment
would be their first property purchase.
More than 80 per cent of those first-time
buyers said they would rent out their property.
