British Buyers Buying Property Abroad And Renting In Uk

It’s not just first time British buyers who are looking abroad for their property fix, an increasing number of Britons are making the conscious decision to sell in the UK to buy abroad and rent in Britain.  Meet the Barby – someone who uses overseas property markets to get ahead, well aware that they can rent in the UK for less than they can buy now that the British property market has become ridiculously overpriced.

At a time when UK landlords are being forced to admit that often, their rental income is falling far short of their mortgage payments and that nowadays, property price appreciation cannot be guaranteed, it’s no wonder that savvy British buyers are buying property abroad and renting in the UK.

The ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2008’ report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute proves that Barby thinking is not as skewed as you might think.  The report reveals that the UK is one of the nations to avoid in 2008 if you’re a property investor, and that London in particular is experiencing declining economic conditions.

Having seen the current uncertain property market conditions coming, the Barby is likely to be a thirty to forty-something former UK homeowner who has sold up in Great Britain and reinvested their capital abroad in a series of either emerging or established markets where there exist significant lifestyle or investment options.  Meanwhile, the so called Barby will be renting an attractive and comfortable home in the UK for usually far less than the landlord would be being forced to pay if they bought the property in today’s market.

One example of a particularly successful Barby was illustrated in the Telegraph recently.  This particular chap rented a swish Docklands pad for GBP 3,000 a month, leaving his landlord to find an additional GBP 3,000 a month to meet his astronomical mortgage payments.  And as the Barby in question pointed out, the landlord’s approach to the purchase was to rely on capital appreciation – but because of the current global economic conditions and the current state of the residential market in London he was making a loss each and every month.  This Barby had investments returning him both an attractive income and a strong rate of return in the form of underlying growth in Cyprus, Malaysia, Miami and the Philippines.

So, it’s not just first time buyers who cannot get a foothold on the British property market who are heading overseas in search of property based potential, a number of Britons who formerly owned homes in the UK are finding that they can get more for their money if they rent in the UK – and in today’s market they can rent far more than they could afford to buy – whilst investing their cash in property abroad for rental income, capital growth, risk reduction through market diversification and even for a lifestyle enhancement. shelteroffshore.com