BREXIT AND BUYING ABROAD.
Well that’s one problem out of the way in this country. Tax changes have happened by 1st April!! Yet, for all the furore and hysteria, however, Buy-to-Let will still go on.
( Not that we’re unhappy because we have seen a surge in interest in Spanish property, specifically for the equivalent of Buy-to-Let, so the reaction to the new UK legislation suits us fine and our new purchasers!! )
Now we can “worry” about what BREXIT may mean for those buying property abroad.
Coming out of the EU won’t mean all those people living in EU countries will suddenly come home nor will it mean that nobody will buy a property in an EU country. Many people buying in these countries are not from another EU country but this hasn’t stopped them from buying there!!
Buying abroad comes with taxes etc and will still do so. The decision to purchase should in any case more come down to the quality of the property and its overall value for money. Taxes and costs are part of what you pay in the purchasing process (though we have spoken to people who do not realise the house-price quoted doesn’t include the costs of local taxes) wherever you buy. Countries in the EU won’t suddenly refuse to let us be homeowners in their patch of the woods! Just as in this country we won’t stop people coming here to work or for other reasons and stop them from buying property because we are not in the EU.
Many economies don’t just depend on money from trade with us. They also get money from taxes due to property ownership and the fact we are buying in their country. The borders won’t suddenly shut on us because we are no longer in the same kind of agreement. For many the tourist industry brings in vast amounts of money. This will still be the case. It would be difficult to say we want you to come on holiday and spend your money but we don’t want you to own a house and also spend your money!
If we stay in the EU then little will change other than the normal day-to-day changes that happen in a country. Taxes go up and down (mainly the former!) but this doesn’t stop the property market in its tracks. There may be a hiatus but when people get used to any new ideas the house-buying will adapt and go on. In this country in the 1980’s mortgage interest rates were as high as 15% yet people still bought. Today house prices are at a high and there is a shortage!!
We don’t have a crystal ball but common sense would say “We are in the Common Market” and we buy property yet if we are not in the “Common Market” we will still buy!! The phrase Common Market is what the UK signed up for in the 1970’s and will still continue whatever we call ourselves. In this case the common market we are talking about is property-buying!!
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