Buying

As well as potential language problems the buying process overseas is usually very different to that of the United Kingdom and a purchase should not be undertaken without expert advice. Many of the difficulties encountered abroad are due to not understanding these different procedures and committing to a purchase without taking advice or investigating the implications properly.

As in the UK a purchase will take many weeks, so there's time to sort out a team of good advisers. Simply follow the links below to obtain more information about each category, together with contact details of specialist advisers.

	Property Finance Legal Survey Foreign Exchange

Now you have an approximate idea of the procedures and who to talk to, you can think about where to buy and why.

Location checklist
Before starting the search it's worth asking a few basic questions, which will save time and money in the long run:

• Do you prefer the town or country?
• Do you want to be inland or on the coast?
• Do you want to be isolated or in the thick of it?
• How much outside space would you like?
• How close do you want to be to your neighbours?
• How close do you want to be to shops, bars and restaurants?
• Where's the nearest public transport, how often does it run, what time does it end?
• How far is the beach?
• How close are you to the nearest airport?
• How far is it to sports facilities, golf, tennis, swimming, and so on?
• How good are the local health and social services?
• Arts and entertainment - what's available in the area?