UK Homeowners Releasing Equity to Fund Overseas Property Purchases + Better Euro Exchange Rates Coming?
July saw the average house price rise by 0.3 per cent to a record £232,969. So, what can you get for that amount in the UK and how does this compare to popular expat destinations which are gathering more and more attention as a result of offering far more for your money?
Amy Baker, Assistant Editor at the Overseas Guides Company explains: "In London, for £230,000, you can expect to get, at most, a maisonette or two bedroom flat in London Zone 3. If you were to venture out of London, for the same price you could be the owner of a three bed house complete with a private garden and two parking spaces in Bracknell."
"Now, if you were to look to the popular expat destination of Murcia, Spain, for less than £230,000 you could purchase a five bedroom town house complete with a private pool. (See image at top).
“If France is more your thing, a three bedroom detached character cottage complete with gite complex (with rental potential), a swimming pool and huge garden in the Dordogne could be yours for the same price."
Amy concludes: "With prices reaching such high levels, it's no surprise that people are looking to release equity in their current homes in order to free up capital to invest in popular destinations where they can expect good rental yield. Conversely, we are seeing many selling up entirely and opting to make outright purchases overseas with the proceeds from the sale of their UK homes. And who can blame them?"
"Even with the government announcing this week that 10,000 new homes have been reserved in their "Help to Buy" stimulus package - we expect to see more and more people shunning the UK and instead stretching their money and purchasing larger, more luxurious homes in warmer destinations for a fraction of the price."
Exchange rates latest: Better Euro Rates Coming?
For those looking to transfer money into Euro's the good news is that there is an increased bearish bias towards the shared currency.
Shaun Osborne is one of these bears saying:
"We’ve remained bearish on EUR with the failure to cleanly break above 1.34, and the fact that stronger German survey data last night was not able to boost the Single currency is a sign that the market is really focused on the US side of the equation right now.
"Overall we’re still biased towards a lower EUR in the coming weeks and months, but looking at the narrowing of EUR-US short -term rate spreads overnight and considering we could get a
strong German GDP report tomorrow, there is a risk of some whippy trading in the coming days."