Have you purchased a holiday home?

[carrieeee]

So my husband and I aren't in a position to buy a property here in the UK as the area we live in is just too expensive for what we would want. So we was thinking, if we saved hard for the next 10 years we could be in a good financial position to purchase a little holiday apartment in Spain (or France)
We would want it for us & family to use it for holidays, not to live in. And wondered if anyone else in a similar position to us has done this?
We've been reading about oversea mortgages which hopefully we wouldn't need a too big of a mortgage but have you done this? Was it a headache or simple?

What's your thoughts?

Or we in dreamland....

Do you have nationality from or can access nationality of an EU member state? It is still possible for U.K. nationals to buy in the EU but you may face additional requirements which will differ by country and also limits on the time you can spend there in a certain period.

Suggest you google and read up on post Brexit requirements before you do anything. Unless you are an EU national you are now limited to trips of Max 90 days in rolling 180. Also lots of different taxes to pay in Spain. You also need to factor in whether you will need rental income from the property, exchange rates etc. We have a static home in France on a site family has been visiting for 30 + years and it works well as several of us use it. We use it as a base for visiting other EU countries but ferry routes have now changed which means we won’t be able to pop over for weekends. We have also had to continue with site rents etc during COVID for something we cannot currently use - all things to think about.

In Spain there are annual taxes for overseas property owners based in property value.

You would also need to pay monthly bank account fees, standing charges for both water and electricity.
You need to be aware of the risk of squatters. Big problem in certain parts of Spain at the minute.

It's not a massive amount of money but at least €100 per month.

Urbanisations also have community charges. Ours is €300 per year.

The property purchase process hasn't changed in France since Brexit. We didn't have a mortgage so I don't know if there's anything different with that, but can happily take you through the actual purchase process (really straightforward) and costs of owning a property in France.

We chose France because with climate change, the cost of flying is likely to increase with higher taxation in future, so we wanted a choice of travel methods.