Worlds best places to retire?

A recent article in the Sunday Times (Money Section, 18th July) reviewed the top five places to retire and fortunately three of the top five are countries that we deal with. They analysed the countries based on nine key indicators (a mark out of 10 was given to each):

1. Income Tax
2. Inheritance Tax
3. Property Tax
4. Property Costs
5. Living Costs
6. Ease of gaining residencey
7. Healthcare
8. Climate
9. Culture

Let me just cover the three that we deal with quickly.

Overseas property purchases show signs of recovery

In these last few weeks there has been a lot of positive press regarding the word “recovery”. There have been fantastic indicators in the UK including the FTSE 100 reaching 5,000 for the first time since October 2008, the UK domestic Market showing promise with increases of 5.6% on the year and predictions that houses will actually be worth more at the end of the year than at the start. There are other, more economic indicators as well; GDP figures are up on forcasts, the costs for banks borrowing from each other is now cheaper than before the credit crunch and unemployment continuing to peak and given this is a lagging indicator, this is actually good news.

What does this mean for the overseas property sector however, are we seeing such bullish news from this sector; one which has been hit hard by the credit crunch?