Spain has come out on top as the most popular destination for expats looking to buy a property overseas, a new survey has found.
A Place in the Sun’s annual top ten table of the most popular buying locations revealed that in 2013 381,025 Brits bought properties in Spain.
The second most popular destination for Brits buying abroad was France with 172,806 sales and in third place was Portugal with 39,000. The rest of the top ten was made up of Italy, the USA, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta and Thailand.
This is in stark contrast to United Nations migration figures and highlights a disparity in the preferences of Brits when looking for a holiday or retirement home compared to a permanent place abroad.
The UN league table of the top ten countries with the most expat Britons shows that countries where English is the main language came out top with Australia, the USA and Canada the most popular.
The rest of the top ten comprised of the popular holiday destination Spain, followed by New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy.
Andy Bridge from A Place in the Sun said: “2015 saw a dramatic increase in the number of Brits looking to buy property abroad following the steep decline since the economic woes of 2008.
“With that seemingly behind us, with overseas property searches doubling between 2014 and 2015, buyers were clearly taking advantage of low prices and a beneficial exchange rate to buy overseas property. Not all property purchased by Brits outside the UK is bought as a primary home, for our property portal users it’s for holidays, retirement and to some extent, investment.”
A Place in the Sun asked 2,000 over 45-year-olds why they would consider emigrating and found that Brits did so for a better way of life (74%), a warmer climate (70%), because they felt they could get more for their money (26%) and a better diet (26%).
“We have seen an increasing number of property searches in recent years. When comparing the top ten most searched and enquired locations against this UN data, there are more differences than similarities. The USA does feature, with Florida the key destination, however the majority are closer to home; France, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus with Thailand also creeping into the top ten. This can be attributed to the reason behind the purchase – a holiday home,” said Bridge.
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