British overseas property portfolio close to £60bn
Around £58bn worth of overseas properties are now owned by Britons, up £5.2bn compared with this time last year.
The ‘Second Homes Abroad 2008’ found that there are currently 425,000 properties owned by UK citizens overseas, an increase of 35,000 properties year-on-year.The research also shows that Spain and France remain the most popular countries for overseas homebuyers. Some 34% of UK foreign owned property is located in Spain, followed by France (23%), non-European (16%), other European (16%), USA (6%), Portugal (3%) and Italy (2%).
Half of the overseas second homeowners interviewed, as part of the research, revealed that owning a second home overseas was primarily a lifestyle decision, rather than an investment
Homes Overseas 6th August 2008