Overseas Property & the Countdown to Brexit

This tallies with overseas property businesses reporting soaring interest from Britons. “Over the last year we have seen reservations of our Spanish properties by British buyers shoot up by 77 per cent,” Marc Pritchard, of Taylor Wimpey España, said this summer. “In the Costa del Sol we’ve witnessed a 100 per cent increase in reservations. It certainly seems that Brexit has not dampened British buyers’ appetite for holiday homes, at least not in Spain. If anything, the decision to leave the EU has pushed many into hurrying to purchase a home overseas before the UK actually leaves the EU.”

It’s a similar story in France, where inquiries continue to fl ow into the largest Anglo-French estate agency. “We saw an immediate drop in inquiries immediately after the [Brexit] vote in June 2016,” Trevor Leggett, of Leggett Immobilier, said. “However, this didn’t last long and in the subsequent months, it became evident that there was a Brexit backlash taking place. Sales increased and those buying increased their budgets. The figure that has dropped is the number of British homeowners moving back to the UK.” If the prospect of Brexit has fuelled a desire to move, or to buy an overseas property, here are some useful pointers – because nothing about the purchase process has changed – yet. Anyone in receipt of a UK state pension should request an S1 (formerly E121 form) from the overseas healthcare team at the Department for Work and Pensions before leaving the UK.

https://www.aplaceinthesun.com/articles/2018/10/overseas-property-the-countdown-to-brexit