Young Britons Buying Foreign Homes As Way Of Getting On To Property Ladder

[kjw]

Young Britons forced out of the housing market at home are turning their eyes abroad in an effort to get on the first rung of the property ladder.

In the past year there has been an 80 per cent spike in interest in buying foreign properties among British people aged under 40 in the past year, according to new figures.

It is a trend that is gathering pace: a similar study published in September 2013 found the number of people in their thirties buying abroad had risen by 25 per cent in two years, according to investment advisers MoneyCorp. Then the US and Spain were the most popular markets.

Recent data from ONS shows that two million people between the ages of 25 and 44 left the UK in the decade to 2012. But the overall rate of emigration is on the decline, suggesting that interest in foreign property could be driven by the desire to get on the property ladder.

Angus Hanton, co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation, warned that the figures showed how the UK's growing age divide was storing up huge social problems for the future. "At risk is a potential brain drain, asset drain and generational drain if these young people choose to move abroad permanently in the future, having been let down by the UK," he said. "Policymakers must do more to help the many under-40s locked out of the housing market to put down property roots at home rather than abroad."

Mervyn Jones, a housing analyst with property consultancy Savills, described people 30 and under as the "new excluded" in the housing market. "These are young people who are unable to buy because of prices and mortgage availability," he said.

The latest property market projections, published by Savills last week, indicates there will be 1.2 million more renters in Britain by 2019 as property prices rise by 20 per cent in the next five years. The Government is attempting to attract investment into the private rental market to provide decent housing for young people, but Mr Jones said investors were unable to find enough opportunities to provide rented homes because of the scarcity of housing overall.

"The recommendation was to try to develop a new sector of market rent which, of course, the Government has attempted. These are hard measures because it's a big problem. But the housing market is still stagnating because of supply," he said.

Freelance writer Beulah Devaney, 27, decided to move to Amsterdam with her 32-year-old partner, a web designer, to save for a deposit to buy a property. Although she was planning to buy in the UK, she says she is under pressure from other British expats to follow their lead and invest in property in the Netherlands.

"None of us could buy at home so I think we're all a bit shocked at how good the housing market is here, and there's a feeling we should take advantage of it," she said. "As a young person in the UK, I had to leave to be able to afford the standard of living my parents took for granted 20 years ago. I'm sick of paying off other peoples mortgages and supplementing the pensions of inept landlords."

However, Ms Devaney has yet to buy a home abroad because of her concerns about becoming a landlord herself if she decided to move back to the UK. "I think it's immoral for people to own more than one house and I don't want to buy into that system just because I can," she added.

But Mr Jones said purchasing abroad was compounding a global issue where the youngest in many countries cannot afford the basic cost of living, including housing costs. He said shared ownership – where an owner buys a share in a property from a housing association and pays rent on the remaining share – could offer an answer. But to do this, more has to be done to reassure young buyers that the government could protect them from the risk of spiralling leasehold or service charges, he added.

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/mortgages/young-britons-buying-foreign-homes-as-way-of-getting-on-to-property-ladder-9849240.html

[honkydonkey]

Shared ownership could offer the answer LOL, yes more debt and less equity is a better solution than more houses and lower prices.

[Lifes a game]

Shared ownership could offer the answer LOL, yes more debt and less equity is a better solution than more houses and lower prices.

It's not just less equity,

You pay way more than its worth and if you don't keep up with repayments you get kicked out and lose any equity you had. It's a rip off.

[erat_forte]

"more has to be done to reassure young buyers that the government could protect them from the risk of spiralling leasehold or service charges"

Because spiralling house prices are not a risk at all?

[treadwater]

Hell of a commute

[Corruption]

So these Brits are buying overseas and renting it out and at the same time renting a place over here.

Surprising what gets past as financial journalism these days.

[porca misèria]

From stories posted recently, the Indy appears to have outflanked the Grauniad in detachment from reality.

Why are more people buying abroad? Well, apart from the holiday homes in Spain or Bulgaria, there's the more basic point "because they can". When I worked in Germany in the '80s there was no question of me (as a foreigner) getting a mortgage to buy there.

[Bruce Banner]

"Why are more people buying abroad"? Because they've been indoctrinated in the belief that they are nothing unless they are property owners and abroad is all they can afford.

Here, in Southern Spain, property is easily affordable but no one wants to buy because although it is worth half what it was a few years ago, prices are still falling. The apartment we rent for €500 per month, with heated pool and overlooking the marina and beach, was offered to us for €130K three years ago, this year we could buy it for about €90K. six or seven years ago they were changing hands for about €250K, but why would we want to buy when we can rent for not much more than the owner has to pay in community charges?

[Si1]

Jeezus

Blinkered to comparison with other investments

Idiocy

[porca misèria]

"Why are more people buying abroad"? Because they've been indoctrinated in the belief that they are nothing unless they are property owners and abroad is all they can afford.

That would've applied to me in the 1980s too, if I could've bought.

The difference between me then and today's young emigrants who are buying is a simple because they can.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Young Britons....

...among British people aged under 40 in the past year...

Young persons railcard ( as it used to be called );

http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/online10/?gclid=CMzMsN_G7cECFfHKtAodsDsAhw

"Buy a 16-25 Railcard online now "

The human body starts to deteriote after 40. To consider someone buying a house at 39 to be young is like saying David Cameron is a good PM.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

That would've applied to me in the 1980s too, if I could've bought.

The difference between me then and today's young emigrants who are buying is a simple because they can. of marketting and the government pushing loans onto them to save the banks.

[Executive Sadman]

Lots people seem to be going Dubai and the like. Make your money in a zero tax environment, return when you need the NHS etc. Seems to be the way to do it, the level of taxes here is now obscene.

[interestrateripoff]

You really couldn't make this up, I can't afford to buy here but I could buy a property in the US!

[porca misèria]

Lots people seem to be going Dubai and the like. Make your money in a zero tax environment, return when you need the NHS etc. Seems to be the way to do it, the level of taxes here is now obscene.

The level of taxes here is the lowest it's been since before 1945.

Yes, it's obscene. And that deficit hints at rising taxes - among other painful things - to come

[winkie]

WHAT LADDER....a home is not always a ladder......it may well turn out to be a snake.

[Executive Sadman]

The level of taxes here is the lowest it's been since before 1945.

Yes, it's obscene. And that deficit hints at rising taxes - among other painful things - to come

The deficit is an inflation tax. Conventional taxes wont rise to replace the inflation tax as people believe inflation is just 'something that was,is, and always will be' and not a deliberate government means of raising finance.

Low interest rates are here to stay, so they have no incentive to reduce the deficits.

[Venger]

"None of us could buy at home so I think we're all a bit shocked at how good the housing market is here, and there's a feeling we should take advantage of it," she said. "As a young person in the UK, I had to leave to be able to afford the standard of living my parents took for granted 20 years ago. I'm sick of paying off other peoples mortgages and supplementing the pensions of inept landlords."

Can fully understand it - they are doing the right thing - if they buy where there is value and stability (don't fully know about NL - but anywhere that UK).

The excuse givers are their main enemy, including many on the forum. One woman in her 50s buying 5 bed house for herself at £870,000 and other 'property-heads' outbidding them by quarter million pounds plus given excuses that they are victims of banks/media for years.... leading to QE/0.5%/FLS/mortgage rescue...reflation to double-treble the previous silly peak.

[deflation]

"Why are more people buying abroad"? Because they've been indoctrinated in the belief that they are nothing unless they are property owners and abroad is all they can afford.

Here, in Southern Spain, property is easily affordable but no one wants to buy because although it is worth half what it was a few years ago, prices are still falling. The apartment we rent for €500 per month, with heated pool and overlooking the marina and beach, was offered to us for €130K three years ago, this year we could buy it for about €90K. six or seven years ago they were changing hands for about €250K, but why would we want to buy when we can rent for not much more than the owner has to pay in community charges?

Just had a week in Spain, the Alicante region. Despite the fact that there are hundreds if not thousands of empty apartments for sale starting at €40k - €50k, they are building new ones across the road from urbanizations and people are buying them, at €80k plus. Apart from the change in style from trad. Spanish / Moorish to more austere cubist / Scandinavian with straight lines, I don't get it. It can't be just 'coz they're better built; can it?

From the local press:

Edited November 9, 2014 by deflation

[vin rouge]

....but the new ones come with a new oven and dishwasher. Well worth the extra 40K

[Austin Allegro]

Wasn't there some scam a few years ago where somebody was selling the property rights to plots of land on the moon?

That might be worth selling to youngsters as a way of avoiding the shame of not owning pwoperty.

One small step for man, one giant leap up the property ladder....

[Venger]

Wasn't there some scam a few years ago where somebody was selling the property rights to plots of land on the moon?

That might be worth selling to youngsters as a way of avoiding the shame of not owning pwoperty.

One small step for man, one giant leap up the property ladder....

Email from Amazon the other day: 2 acres, was £19.99 now £10.

http://local.amazon.co.uk/East-Manchester/B00P2Q4LTS

What's the problem anyway, if actual affordability and value exists in other countries?

In UK people can outbid you by £300,000 for a house or apartment and are considered victims "who didn't know what they were doing" - leading to forever bailouts and worsening situation for capitalists.

People who don’t buy a house will never be happy

21-08-13

According to new government statistics, anyone still renting their home past the age of about 39 is going to die alone and unloved, in the knowledge that they have failed on the most fundamental level.

Estate agent Tom Logan said: “Mortgage lending is soaring, basically everyone owns a house now apart from complete social pariahs.

..full article continues: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/people-who-dont-buy-a-house-will-never-be-happy-2013082178832