Overseas property investment overview

A decade ago only adventurous professional investors ploughed money into overseas holiday homes just for profit but since then that trend has almost been turned on its head. 

Tens of thousands of us are now relying on property (rather than pensions) to ensure our later years health and wealth and 'investment purchasers' are said to make up 20 per cent or more of the overseas property market. Add to that the small army of buyers who rely on rental income to help their holiday homes pay their way and investment property is now a small industry on its own, helped largely by the cheap property available within emerging markets such as Egypt, Bulgaria, Morocco, Albania, Montenegro and the more far-flung parts of Spain. Recent property booms in these markest have been taking place fuelled almost entirely by Brit, Dutch and Irish investors snapping up properties, sometimes by the dozen.

But while property markets globally are cooling off following the credit crunch, is investment in overseas property still a good idea? In this section we answer this, and many of the other questions about investing overseas, to help you make a more informed decision.

However, one set of figures that offers some comfort is a recent market report by the Association of International Property Professionals. According to its 2007 figures, there were 242,000 completed purchases of overseas property last year by Brits, up 21 per cent on the previous year - and representing a spend of £24 billion.