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Foreign property is big business
23 September, 2008
In light of difficult market conditions here in the UK, Britons are increasingly looking to invest in buying property abroad. Research from Cater Allen Private Bank has found that over three million people are likely to buy a property overseas within the next two years, with 42 per cent of these looking to use the property primarily as an investment opportunity.
According to the research 17 per cent of people aged over 45 years old are likely to buy abroad over the next two years making them the age group most likely to do so, while an aspiring one in ten of those aged between 18 and 34 (10 per cent) are also looking to buy overseas - the majority of them, (60 per cent) are looking to buy purely as an investment.
Currently 2.3 million people already own a property abroad with as many as 500,000 used solely for investment purposes. Regionally, Londoners are most likely to own a property abroad, with one in ten (10 per cent) doing so, however London's property-owners are least likely to visit their property each year. On average, Britons who own a home abroad will visit the property between two and three times a year.
Sally Watts, Marketing manager at Cater Allen, said: "With concerns that a deteriorating property market will not guarantee the returns that people expect from buying a property, more and more people are investigating how they can find investment returns elsewhere."