A Guide to Buying Overseas Property
A lot of us have thought at some point about buying property
overseas. The possibility of high returns for a relatively small
real investment is a major attraction to anyone. The main reason
the majority of people don't invest more seems to be that the
whole process seems too high-risk and they feel the legal and
the paper-work end of things requires some special
qualification. People often say to me they are concerned that
they won't be able to 'keep an eye on their investment'. My
usual answer to this is 'when is the last time you've seen your
shares?' The main mistake people make is seeing an investment
property as a home instead of an investment. When I buy a
property I don't gauge it on whether I would like to live there,
I look at the rent potential of the property or developments in
the area that will increase capital appreciation rates in the
future. The key to success in property investment is not by how
qualified you are or how much you have to invest as I will show
later; a relatively small investment can bring good returns if
properly researched. Therein is the key, research. I would
recommend the internet as a good starting place for anyone
seeking to buy overseas property. It is a vast resource of
information with everything you need to know to make an informed
decision about where to buy. I will go through my most recent
experience of purchasing overseas property as there is nothing
like personal experience when it comes to a complex process like
overseas property purchase. My most recent venture has been a 1
bedroom serviced apartment in Shanghai, China. A lot of people
would consider this to be a high-risk purchase because to most
non-Chinese people it seems a million miles away but in reality
as long as research is done properly and I can't emphasis the
importance of this enough, any risk can be greatly reduced. I
initially was searching the internet for information on emerging
property markets. A good tip here is to look what the large
multi-nationals are investing, for example companies such as
JPMorgan were investing heavily in Shanghai at the same time I
purchased my apartment. This got my attention and I began to
look further into it. I looked at things that might affect
capital appreciation rates such as wage levels in relation to
property prices, the general state of the economy, recent rates
of capital appreciation, planned foreign investment, currency
stability, government policy in the area...the list goes on. I
looked into basically as many eventualities as I could that
could affect my investment both positively or negatively. If you
would like a full list of details as regards what to look for in
an area you're interested in please feel free to contact me
(contact details can be found on my website). Once I had
identified my area (I had decided on the Pudong district. A
financial services area of Shanghai) I then began to look for a
company with an interesting development. I believe that finding
a company in your local area is of great importance for a number
of reasons. It may prove more expensive in the short-run but you
will save yourself a lot of hassle as the process of purchasing
can be quite lengthy and with deadlines looming you don't want
to be struggling with international phone codes or waiting for
post to arrive from abroad. I finally choose a company with a
proven track record and run by people with an excellent degree
of experience and expertise in the area. This was important for
a number of reasons. It reduced the chances of being scammed as
opposed to signing with a relatively unproven or unknown
company. It also meant that the process went as smooth as
possible because as with anything that relies on different
groups of people especially when a foreign language is involved
problems will inevitably be and were encountered along the way.
You will be thankful as I was when you are represented by people
who can deal with these problems professionally and efficiently.
The price of the apartment itself was