- This topic has 25 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 5 months ago by
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I think Shakeel does as well, but to be frank there aren’t that many posters on this forum and it’s attraction (to me at least) is that it’s not only about Spanish property. Maybe it should be renamed to “All about Spanish property and the economy” (which is what they did on housepricecrash.co.uk when they realised that people were posting about economics and current affairs as much as house prices on the main forum).
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I live in Spain and plan to stay put. There are plenty of things wrong with Spain, but it’s the same story everywhere. The UK is hardly a paragon of excellence.
I’m fully aware of this country’s faults, but I can’t imagine a nicer place to live.
South Africa? It’ll go the way of Zimbabwe with time (where I lived for 5 years). Security is a serious problem.
Kenya? It was paradise in the 70s and early 80s when I was a child growing up there. Now it’s still a lovely place to visit, but I wouldn’t live there again if you paid me.
South of France? Perhaps, but France has serious problems too, and is firmly in denial about them. Easy to visit as much as I want from where I am now, and climate not quite good enough anyway.
Florida? Hmm, I dunno. I’m not sure I could stomach all that homeland security stuff.
Australia – too far away from family and friends
Chile – same as Australia
Dubai – no thanks
Turkey – long term political risk and the islamists slowly take overEveryone will have their own criteria. Nowhere is prefect. Catalonia will just have to do for me.
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@mark wrote:
I live in Spain and plan to stay put. There are plenty of things wrong with Spain, but it’s the same story everywhere. The UK is hardly a paragon of excellence.
I’m fully aware of this country’s faults, but I can’t imagine a nicer place to live.
South Africa? It’ll go the way of Zimbabwe with time (where I lived for 5 years). Security is a serious problem.
Kenya? It was paradise in the 70s and early 80s when I was a child growing up there. Now it’s still a lovely place to visit, but I wouldn’t live there again if you paid me.
South of France? Perhaps, but France has serious problems too, and is firmly in denial about them. Easy to visit as much as I want from where I am now, and climate not quite good enough anyway.
Florida? Hmm, I dunno. I’m not sure I could stomach all that homeland security stuff.
Australia – too far away from family and friends
Chile – same as Australia
Dubai – no thanks
Turkey – long term political risk and the islamists slowly take overEveryone will have their own criteria. Nowhere is prefect. Catalonia will just have to do for me.
Have you considered Cyprus?
Seriously though, your thought process is similar to mine. Also having a Spanish wife and the attractions of bringing up kids in Spain swings it for me (not just them being bilingual, but it is relatively cheap to bring them up in a happy and stimulating environment). Maybe when they’re older we’ll consider moving back to the UK (I actually like the UK as well) but unless our situation here changes I can’t see it happening for at least 10 years.
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Where to live, where to buy for low completion costs and growth? 🙄
I don’t like Osborne but following his budget with great emphasis on the UK housing market, we are buying another property in the UK because prices are now likely to rise more. Agents in the suburbs of London have told me that they are now getting offers over asking asking prices, at least 5% rise over last years prices in many cases. High rental returns also make sense, you can get £1200-1400 per month in places like Ewell for an ordinary 2 bed terrace costing £220k-£260k a return of 6%+ , and more chance of capital growth in the next 2 years or so. Plus a shortage of property generally.
With completion costs of only 1-5% compared to Spain’s 10-11% plus lower costs to sell in the UK I expect a lot of smart overseas money including Cypriot Russian money will find it’s way to London and other hot spots in the UK. 😉
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France does it for me despite the high taxation and neo-communist tendencies. I know the country has troubles but it’s economy in principle is sound if they could only control the unions.
France has one of the finest healthcare services in the world. (it saved my wife’s life). It has a system of government that works efficiently despite the high level of bureaucratic procedures and civil servants. Corruption is low and there is an effective rule of law. The roads are relatively uncongested outside the cities, especially the autoroutes if you want a fast expensive trip.
The countryside is green and pleasant, massive personal space, good climate south of the Loire Valley and property and land reasonably priced except on the Riviera. France is central to everywhere. I can be in Italy in half a day, Germany in a few hours and Spain in less than 2 hours and the Atlantic beaches in 60 minutes….Oh and wonderful food and wines.
I have really considered relocating especially after Hollande was elected but I’ve decided to stay put and pay up. After all life’s great lesson is in the end you get what you pay for. 🙂
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Yes the UK suddenly looks a bit more attractive for property. I’ve rented out flats to professionals and students in Brighton over the years, and I’m considering dabbling again. You can get 6 or 7% yields renting houses to students these days (about half what it was 10 years ago) but if protecting your money is the name of the game then it might still be attractive.
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Bearing in mind the USA is off the map because of visa/entry requirements, my choices purely for life-style would be France and Italy, scenic, good weather down south compared to UK, and for no overbuild generally, maybe parts of inland Spain too.
However for investment now and familiarity/safety, under-supply, low costs involved, the UK is looking a good bet provided there’s not another World crisis 😉
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@itsme wrote:
What about Ireland….. I’ve lived in the UK and Spain and enjoy it here far more. Our two children are having a fantastic time with all the sports on offer. Today is blowing an icy gale but hey ho…. better than burning sun and the desire to throw rotten tomatoes at the banks…;)
Every time I go to Ireland the weather is dire, so that’s off my list.
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There are still a lot of good things about the UK, but I’m afraid trying to keep the housing bubble going (started by Brown), isn’t one of them.
The chancellor insisted that all the previous housing booms were fatally flawed, but that after a series of late nights, hunched over his desk, he had now perfected the system.
He told MPs: “The key difference this time is that I am making it much easier for people with no money to get a mortgage.
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Like Mark, Chopera, and a million other expats, Spain is the place for me. But I have to add – barring major world events beyond my control.
Those idiotic UKIP people could derail my plans for the Spanish future, so could horrible currency traders like that despicable George Soros, and if Cyprus gives the UK military base to Putin, all hell could break loose.
I don’t expect any of those extreme events to happen and hope to continue living in paradise until the end; many years away, I hope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7tot5trgE
I hope you’ve got your handkerchief ready, Katy! (And you, Logan).
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
There are still a lot of good things about the UK, but I’m afraid trying to keep the housing bubble going (started by Brown), isn’t one of them.
The chancellor insisted that all the previous housing booms were fatally flawed, but that after a series of late nights, hunched over his desk, he had now perfected the system.
He told MPs: “The key difference this time is that I am making it much easier for people with no money to get a mortgage.
Agreed. Unfortunately “should do” has absolutely nothing to do with “actually is going to do” when it comes to politicians. The banks won’t collapse and by hook or by crook tax payers money will always be used to ensure that people become enslaved to them.
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I don’t agree with successive UK Gov’ts reliance on and the artificial inflating of the UK property market, bog standard property in and around London is very expensive as it is, young people find it hard anyway to get on the ladder, but this also happens with other forms of markets globally too, a Soros steps in, a war starts, and before you know it a currency is bought or sold off, gold rockets, property booms or crashes as do stock markets. The most some of us can hope for is to get in near the beginning of a lift-off, get out before the others do and make some profit, and property has been very good for us personally, the one market that has really helped us, as has currency twice although I steer clear of it normally. We never hang on too long with a profit on a particular property, I think Rothschild said ‘you never get poor by taking a profit’, and someone said ‘leave something for the next man’, it works too 😉 😛
Whatever any of us do though is often out of our hands, if I bought shares tomorrow the market would fall in the short term 🙄
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