Roadking

OK, had enough of the family sodding off back to the UK every summer. Now want to buy a villa somewhere not too expensive (150-200'000 Euro) with 3 or 4 bedrooms in a nice location.

Considering the following:

Cyprus; direct flights, English speaking, drive on the wrong side of the road but not exactly cheap to buy. Bit Blackpoolish?

Bodrum; No direct flights yet but rumour is Emirates will start soon, not bad prices, English fairly well understood but not natural. Bit hilly?

Greece; Halkidiki or Pelaponese; not sure. Mrs RK studying ancient Greece (Greece, not Greeks!), English not well spoken, prices vary. Direct to Athens but then what?

Calabria; No direct flights, English not well spoken or understood, infrastructure not great, cheaper prices and developing area. Oh, and it's Italy!

What is the considered opinion of the Bored? Anywhere else I've missed but should consider. Seriously looking to buy, so all feedback welcome. the best idea wins a week in the villa (to finish the cleaning and make sure everyting is al'rite.)

moto111

We've bought in Northern Cyprus (Turkish Side), it is what southern cyprus was like 25 years ago, unspoilt, beautiful mountains and countryside, you do take a risk though with the land ownership thing.

Have you thought about lebanon, some of the villages as you go up into the mountains are absolutely beautiful, and the advantage is that the climate is great in summer and you can get skiing in winter.
........

Roadking

Had considered Lebanon but Mrs RK not too keen with all the conflicts. I was in Beirut on business in 2005 when "it" happened, so that might explain her reticence.

moto111

Hmmm yeah snap so was I.

Not sure about the prices, or if you can buy there or not, but there are direct flights and they do speak english - how about the seychelles???? only a 4hr flight..

Roadking

Hmmm, will do some research on that. Thanks.

Why'd you buy in Cyprus and is the land issue resolved yet?

Roadking

OK, quick search tells me they have too many zeros in the price for my budget.

NEXT...?

moto111

Reason for Cyprus was that we wanted something half way between UK and here, we used british solicitors and a british estate agent based in Northern Cyprus, as far as we are concerned the land that our property is on is repatriated land whereby both sides of each government have compensated etc.

However there is always the risk say 20 years down the road that someone could come back in and say ''oy thats my land'', in our contract though it does state if something should happen we will get back our original purchase price. We therefore decided it was a balanced risk that we would take and if it did all go wrong it would not bankrupt us.

There is also quite a large british community in northern cyprus.

If you want the details of the Estate Agent we used, just PM me and I will dig it out for you. We bought a 2 bedroomed split level low rise apartment a year ago off plan, staged payments based on how the construction is going. We actually visited quite a lot of the developments and Mr Moto is in construction and he said they are good builds (so I take his word for it).

We decided not to do southern cyprus as we felt it has become to commercialised.

You can also fly into Southern Cyprus and drive up to one of the 7 or 8 borders to go through to northern cyprus (they do not stamp your passport), and from the UK you get a flight which lands very briefly in Turkey, then turns around and goes to the airport in Northern Cyprus (somewhere).

Robbies

From what I have heard, Thailand is extremely cheap - both to buy and live there...

lionheart

We thought about buying in Northern Cyprus but the reunification of the island looks increasingly likely. Thousands of Greek Cypriots were displaced from the north after the Turkish invasion and will most likely want their land back. A contractual clause offering a refund would be worthless in my view.
My boss has British friends who have just bought a condominium in Florida for less than US$60,000 and have a market valuation over US$200,000 for mortgage purposes. Might be a good time to buy there.

Autonomy

Difficult to buy land / build - you can only own apartments i think...

Roadking

Thanks LH, I'm in the US in August and, if I get the cajnce, will look into property prices there although more from an investment perspective. Don't really see us going to the US regularly for holidays, it's full of Americans! *insert only joking smiley*

Roadking

Yeah, I thought the same. Friend does own property but he is married to a Thai. Guess that's an option...

Only kidding, Mrs RK!

buddymom

Costa Rica property prices are incredibly low right now. Literally dirt cheap. One of my favorite places in the world.
Bit of a hike from here . Just a thought

Blue Cat

what about Turkey?

do a search on a company called Barrasford and Bird in the UK, we bought in Bulgaria via them

pauldxb

Spot on LH about Northern Cyprus.... If & when the island is reunified you have a HUGE risk that the land used to belong to a Greek, the current planned deal would be to allow the Greeks ownership once agin of the land IF they can provide the neccessary paperwork. Why do you think nothing has happened in Famagusta the forgotten city. It was the tourist capital of the island before 1974 & now its empty, nobody has been in or out of the town since then, from the greek side you can even see a car dealership with 1974 cars for sale.... very creepy.

http://www.google.ae/imgres?imgurl=h...num=6&ct=image