Which overseas buyer are you ?

People who buy a home abroad fall into categories, rich, poor, level headed, impulsive, plus a few in between, says Damian Barr.

Once upon a time there were those who owned a second home abroad. They bought it for pre euro peanuts and did it up slowly. It was something lovely, a farmhouse somewhere predictable, like the Dordogne.

There they enjoyed long holidays with their children and their friends and their children. They were the fortunate few. Now, it seems, everyone is doing it. More than a quarter of a million Britons have turned the daydream into a reality, according to Caxton FX, an independent currency company. Almost half of those have snapped up homes in Spain and France. But, as Provence becomes provincial, we're looking further afield with more than a third of homes now being bought outside Europe.

We now move quite comfortably between countries, not counties, and sometimes even between continents. A second home is a must have.

Some people even have two homes, or three or four or more. Others have a much,loved bolt hole in a tried and tested territory. For twentysomethings desperate to buy something, anything, anywhere, Bulgaria is better than nothing.

So are you an Intrepid Investor, a Level Headed Long Termer, a Jetsetting Bon Vivant, a Serial Buy to Letter or a Rampant Renovator? And will you all live happily after? Read on to find out.

Intrepid Investors

The Intrepid Investors are cash poor and time poor. They have "freelance projects" rather than jobs and have never even thought about a pension. They make lots, spend more and surf the bottom of their overdraft. Their busy lives are a series of deadlines and the next big one is finding a place to buy. Although they no longer live at home, their parents are piling on pressure to settle down.

Easier said than done when your natural habitat is edgy but expensive Shoreditch in East London. They've considered Glasgow but they're not sure how good the sushi is up there, and it's too cold. Despairing Mum and Dad are even offering a deposit of 50,000 GBP's.

The Intrepid Investor hasn't seen that much money since the last student loan. It seems a waste to put it straight into a property in Britain just as the market is levelling off. Why not buy abroad? At their local gastropub that night a group of Intrepid Investors discuss the possibility of finally getting on the property ladder and making some easy money. A friend freshly returned from travelling (again) believes Eastern Europe is a bargain. The beer is certainly good, and there are plenty of cheap flights.

Financed by their parents and fuelled by dreams of capital appreciation and potential rental income, the Intrepid Investors are off, scouring the internet for bargains on the eastern fringes of Europe.

Serial Buy to Letters

Such is their grasp of geography and global affairs, Serial Buy to Letters could well work for the UN. As it is, they are a lawyer or City worker with more money than time. They communicate by BlackBerry. When it comes to money and markets they know what's what.

What's more, they have the cash to take advantage of prevailing trends. They were among the first to buy off plan and they know their way around the most complex contract.

To spread the risk the SBTLs cast their nets wide. Yes, there are the corporate lets in big cities like Madrid and Frankfurt. But there are also the holiday apartments in countries such as Turkey and even Brazil. No single property costs more than 150,000 GBP's.

These are not homes, they're investments, each a carefully considered piece of a perfect portfolio. The SBTL hasn't seen them all but can tell you about the square footage and what they're worth.


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