Posts from — March 2007

A huge demand for homes in the sun has seen Britons’ spending on properties overseas increase by 45 per cent in four years. The number of them owning second homes abroad now exceeds a quarter of a million people, at 257,000.

The official Social Trends report today says British families have invested more than £23 billion in overseas property, with most of that invested in Spain and France although increasing numbers are turning to Canada, the Caribbean and New Zealand.

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DUBBED the “jet-to-let set”, first-time buyers unable to get on to the property ladder in the UK are investing in property abroad, a new study has revealed.

Once dominated by middle-aged “second homers” and retired couples, the overseas market is proving increasingly popular with young people who are looking to rent out a property abroad which can then be sold, and the equity used as a deposit on their first UK home.

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THE travel giant Thomson will tomorrow move into the estate agency market, making foreign properties available for people walking into high street shops for the first time.

A survey of 1,600 people by Thomson, the high street’s biggest tour operator, revealed that 55 per cent of Britons want to buy abroad, either as their main residence or as a second home.

The company estimates that Britons have already bought about half a million foreign properties, half of them in Spain.

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 The problems of first-time buyers have been extremely well documented so the results of a recent survey from the Bradford & Bingley Building Society come as no surprise.In it, 2/5 potential first-time buyers are holding down two jobs, 42% are receiving help from their parents and 43% have even thought about giving up buying altogether.In this current climate, buyers are having to come up with ever more innovative ways of getting on the first rung of the ladder, and an increasing number are buying their first property abroad. A recent survey from YouGov found that nearly half of 18 to 29-year-olds plan to buy abroad and that for two thirds of these it would be their first purchase.

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Property prices in Cape Verde doubled last year, but the cash-poor islands have social issues that needs to be addressed Irish investors continue to buy in Cape Verde, but challenges remain for the archipelago, writes Francesca Lombardo.

Property prices in Cape Verde doubled last year, but the cash-poor islands have social issues that needs to be addressed Irish investors continue to buy in Cape Verde, but challenges remain for the archipelago, writes Francesca Lombardo.Not so long ago Irish property investors would have struggled to point to the islands of Cape Verde on a map, but today they represent a significant portion of the overseas buyers in this archipelago off the west coast of Africa.Property prices doubled in Cape Verde last year, according to Paul Aspeden, managing director of the investment firm IPC, and the country’s landscape is changing by the day with five-star hotels mushrooming on Sal, the only one of the ten islands in the archipelago to have an international airport. New airports are due to open this year on two other islands, Boa Vista and Sao Vicente.According to the Cape Verdean National Statistics Institute, tourist arrivals are growing at a rate of 22 per cent, with one million visitors expected by 2015, and international investors continue to put money into property there.Flights into Sal have risen dramatically this year and are ahead of forecasts, with new routes from Scandinavia, Britain, Germany and an increased schedule from Portugal.But behind the sandy beaches, crystal water and welcoming locals, contradictions abound. It is not unusual to see a rundown school with barefoot kids outside at the same time as locals drive past in flashy four-wheel drive cars.Sal still lags behind in terms of the upmarket restaurants and shops needed to meet the needs of the growing numbers of tourists holidaying on the island, and also faces challenges such as water shortages and the risk of overdevelopment. For potential investors the issue is how this still cash-poor country will overcome these difficulties and avoid becoming overdeveloped in the face of a rapidly growing construction sector.‘‘We welcome foreign investors, but we want to avoid the problems that eager developers who are only looking to make a fast buck can trigger,” said Sal’s mayor, Jorge Figueiredo. ‘‘Our aim is to ensure that Cape Verde develops into a long-term and flourishing tourist destination with a stable property market.”

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