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.

The Overseas property market in 2010

I was very recently lucky enough to be a panelist at “The Place in the Sun” exhibition at Earls Court in London. It made me really think about the market for 2010 as it was such a positive exhibition. The stands were busy, the seminars that I was a part of were very busy and generally people seemed very upbeat. So what does this mean for 2010?

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?

New Overseas Property Hotspot? Property in Calabria.

I am not sure that I should really say “new” here as there has been a lot of talk in the industry now about Calabria. I shall focus here for two reasons. Firstly, of all the areas in Italy, perhaps with the exception of Puglia (the heel), Calabria is seen as an undiscovered market and one with a fantastic amount of potential. Secondly, my company promotes property in this area and I have actually purchased myself down here.

Therefore I feel perfectly placed to comment on both the positive and perhaps negative aspects of this “hotspot”. Feel free before reading this post to have a look at some example of properties by clicking here

Property Market Returning?

Could this be the moment that we have been waiting for? There have been silent whispers for the last few months around the figures released from the RICS surveys each month – these have clearly shown a decrease in the rate of price falls in the UK Domestic Property market while also reporting that client numbers are increasing (have now been increasing for the last four months in a row……)

There are now even more figures, from other sources that are starting to stick their heads above the parapits

Even in February 1million Brits were looking for overseas property….

I have just read a really good article on OPP about the state of the market in the UK. Seems that despite all the bad press the Brits still have an insatiable appetite for properties abroad. See article link here