Guest post – Buying a home abroad

For some years now we have been debating whether or not to splash out on a second home abroad. The kids have all grown up and fled the nest, so it’s just me and my other half knocking around the place. A friend of ours has recently purchased a property in America and it has been encouraging to see her enjoy splitting her time between the UK and the sunny climes of Florida.

With this in mind, we started to do a little research into where it would be best to move to. My husband had always fancied a villa in Spain, the archetypal ex-pat experience now so familiar to many of us. The plus sides to moving to Spain were many – good connections to the UK, excellent weather, cuisine and plenty of other Brits to feel at home with. I wasn’t completely convinced however. As we had been on holiday to Spain so many times, I felt it would be better to branch out a little further.

So the next stop was to consider some parts of Eastern Europe – Croatia, Bulgaria or Romania for instance. Property out there is reasonably priced and in some parts of the country you can still be near to the sea. Buying a home in one of these countries certainly seemed like a more interesting and far flung choice. In the end, however, we decided it was just a little too far away and unknown for us to feel completely comfortable in.

Ultimately, we settled on Turkey as a potential property purchasing ground. It is far away and exotic enough that we still feel like we have a lot to discover, having only visited once or twice. The weather is generally lovely, and the culture and cuisine are both pretty spicy and adventurous. Plus, there is enough of a holiday culture in Turkey that we would always find other Brits to talk to and make friends with.

Our friend who has bought a second home in Florida has just started renting it out to family and friends when she isn’t using it. Whilst I wouldn’t want to do that straight away, I think that using our new apartment or villa as a source of income might be a very sensible idea in the future, especially when we start having weddings and grandchildren to take care of!

We haven’t made any firm decisions yet on where we want to live or what kind of house. I think we may head out to Turkey to get more of a feel of precisely where we would like to buy a second home. Then there are other questions to consider, such as what type of house we would like to buy, whether we want to be near an airport or the sea and so on. I reckon it will take a good few months to find the right place, but it will be worth it when we do!
(Photo via adventureseeker.org, edited)

This post was written by: Jane Wilkins has been considering whether to purchase property in Turkey and is going to visit www.propertyturkeyforsale.com to find out more.