Help!! I think I have read almost every post on this website, searching for the answer to where I should invest in my first overseas property, but it seems all the experts have somewhat conflicting views on where is good, and where you wouldn't touch with a barge pole!

Can I ask your opinions on where I should buy, based on the below

Investment amount: Up to GBP 100,000
Purpose: Long term investment, to end up as pension income
Management: Prefer to be hands off
Location: ???? Anywhere
Risk: Low to Medium

I look forward to your comments and opinions!

I's also like to know if any of the property people have also invested in commodities, or if they plan to...?

THANK YOU!

With the olympics just around the corner, China is not a bad investment. Putting your money in Property development could be better than investing in property. Then there is - Berlin which seems to be the hotspot in Germany at the moment. http://www.hiday.net/

Good luck with your investment little red. First of all, asking this question most of the replies are likely to be from commission hungry agents -discount them.
Investing abroad is a very difficult process -the first obvious risk is currency -we've all seen how much cross rates can change in the last year alone.
The second is legal -you really do need to research all the tax implications in the country that you invest in. Don't presume that you only have to worry about tax returns in the UK. There are all sorts of unfamiliar taxes to grapple with and remember that any tax incentives offered today can be withdrawn tomorrow. Look into local taxes, property taxes, wealth taxes, non-resident taxes, withholding taxes-the list goes on. Allied with that there is always an industry of scam artists -lawyers, developers, politicians, bankers that will rob you blind if you are not careful. There are many other problems such as the up keep of your property -in Spain where the build quality is generally dire -this might be a more substantial problem than you think.

The US economy is in or on the brink of recession and its housing market is in dire straits. We are starting to see its effect on Europe, we don't know the final effect on the rest of the world but people who say that it won't affect their market are only making wildly optimistic speculations. They were wrong about it not effecting Europe -that's there track record. I would suggest that you look at the japanese housing market in the 90s just to educate yourself to a possible future scenario for housing in the rest of the world.

My point is this -if you are looking to make an investment -why housing? Why don't you look at the commodity markets, bonds, stocks -something along the more conventional line. I was looking at the Jim Rogers commodity fund the other day -it has great returns. Now I personally wouldn't invest in such a well publicised fund, nor would I dive into commodities unless they have a pull back, but it's an area that I'm looking into. Also what about certain sectors of the stock market that have taken big hit recently. Again I wouldn't personally buy US banks at the moment, but if they take another hit then maybe it's time to dive in for a long term play.
Like I said, good luck in buying property if that's what you decide. Personally for an investment I think there are a lot less problematic investments at the moment. & a heads up from my part of the world - you would be crazy to buy in Spain.

In my opinion I would go with...

Investment amount: Up to GBP 100,000
Use this cash to fund 4 CEE property purchases, using 80k for deposits and 20k for fee's (it is essential to pay a sourcing company imo as using a contract direct from the developer is incredibly risky)

Purpose: Long term investment, to end up as pension income
Buy property in city centre locations and rent them out to the local market. When you retire look to sell 2 of 3 then sell the final one when you need to

Management: Prefer to be hands off
Using a UK company for this will make the investment completely hands off

Location: ???? Anywhere
Czech Republic and Slovakia are fairly low risk at present, Romania more so and Bulgaria(Sofia) 9 - 12 months behind Bucharest in terms of growth

Risk: Low to Medium
Balance your portfolio by having 2 or 3 low to medium risk and 1 higher risk. This higher risk investment will be where you make the most of your money all being well.

I agree that city centres are the best to invest in for the long run as opposed say beachside locations.

My favourite tip for the next 4/5 years at least are emerging cities in the middle east. This is relatively unknown for most british investors but the projected gains could be massive. The main reason are

1) the oil price hitting almost 100 dollars a barrel. Lot of arab economies have a huge trade surplus in oil for example a small state like Abu Dhabi in the UAE has a oil surplus of 800 billion dollars - and a good chunck of the money is being fed into property.

2) Supply cant keep up with demand. Inspite of all the rumours of oversupply ie in Dubai the supply of properties are 2/3 years behind whereas it has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. So any latent supply is being regularly lapped up.

3) Rental yield is the highest in the world - cairo is 1st place for yield and dubai is 4th in the world. Generally rental yields in the arab countries barely come below 10% and in many cases are 15% and above on current prices. As an example, properties I bought 3 years ago I am yielding 25% on them.

4) In places like Dubai 85% of the population are expats and the country is english speaking and contracts are in english. THere are large managent and rental agencies (like better homes) who give a service better than most british letting agents (from personal experience)

5) The middle east in general will have a bumper year 2008 in terms of stock market gains as predicted by many analysts wheras the rest of the developed world UK, US, europe, Japan will suffer from the shockwaves of the credit crunch. This is again because of the cash rich state they are in and dont rely much on foreign banks to raise funds

I can go on with numerous other reasons to invest in the middle east. Personally, I will be looking towards cash rich Abu Dhabi this year. Other areas to look out for are

1) prime downtown Dubai
2) Qatar
3) Bahrain
4) Jordan

My next great tip is the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in the city centre KLCC. Prices are going up rapidly here as we speak and mainly because prices are at a great discount to neighbouring shanghai, hong kong and singapore.

Good Luck

Depends a lot if you wish to use the property yourself - in which case it needs attactions that appeal to you.
In general I would suggest somewhere that is politicaly safe and expanding economically, of the Eastern European countries I would suugest Slovakia as the economy is booming and they are set to join the Euro in Jan 2009. Also the beer is cheap!