A Comment from Simon Conn, overseas property and finance expert, in light of this weeks Brexit announcement
What UK ex-pats are doing in current popular areas of Europe as opposed to the UK.
I am currently getting enquiries from clients who live in Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal or Spain and who either live there or own a property and are looking to refinance for a number of reasons – either:
1. to improve the property (with a view to possibly selling in the future), or
2. to purchase other properties, including in the UK, to take advantage of current exchange rate movements.
The use of the UK properties they are purchasing could be as a holiday home, for family members to reside in – i.e. elderly relatives or son/daughters going to university – or as a future retirement home. It could also become their main residence, should their personal situation change in the future and they have to move back to the UK.
On a separate, also positive point, I am still receiving new European mortgage enquiries, especially for the countries above.
The majority are for holiday home/rental purposes, but buyers could take advantage of any future sellers, especially as the “Leave Date” in 2019 comes closer and no firm decision has been made for existing UK ex-pats.
If of course, beneficial terms are agreed for existing UK ex-pats and applicable European Nationals based in the UK, then this could be a “shot in the arm” for future property sales in both jurisdictions.
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