To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

No one can answer that!

If it's what you want to do, then go for it.

If you are at all uncertain, then wait.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...fcf731b566.jpg
She will know. Please post the answer when you have it.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Hard to say when, but if you decide to wait till after brexit consider putting some of your Sterling into a Euro account, otherwise if sterling drops a lot you'll be paying more for the same place.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Mickey, ignore the George Soros bar-stool advisers. The £ might go up, only Meg knows.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

If you know you are going to buy a large item in euros you want to get some of your sterling in euros to hedge against any movement in the interim.

Sure Sterling might go up and then you've got extra cash, alternatively if it goes down some people find themselves priced out of buying what they thought they could.

Your position is 100% stay in sterling and full-risk, mine is to spread the risk and move some into Euros.

The reality is that there is more downside risk in Sterling in the next six months.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Hello Cape

I don’t wish to be rude, but are you qualified to give this sort of advice? Advising a new member what to do with substantial amounts of money when you know nothing about Mickey’s financial circumstances.

With regard to currency movements, neither the market experts nor the Chancellor know the future. However I being an expert in these matters can confirm that the £ may go up or down or stay the same against the €.

I believe giving financial advice on a social media platform is wrong and dangerous. It is perfectly acceptable to quote your own historic financial experiences or where to catch the number 9 bus.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

As you mention yourself, no one is qualified to know where Fx is going, if we were we'd all be sitting back on our private Caribbean islands with hot and cold running servants.

However I am not giving advice as to the directions of the euro or sterling, I am suggesting some basic logic - I said if they were looking to buy a large euro-denominated asset after Brexit to consider putting some into euros now to hedge the risk of a drop in sterling. At the moment they are 100% exposed to a change in FX between the two currencies, whether up or down for Sterling, my suggestion was to reduce this 100% risk of Fx by considering putting some of their money into euros so it is in the same currency as the large asset they intend to buy.

There is clearly more downside risk for Sterling around Brexit, especially a hard cliff-edge brexit, but my advice is not based around guessing the Brexit Fx direction, it is based around the logic of having some of your money in the same currency as the large asset you are going to buy to minimise the risk of Fx regardless.

And yes, I didn't do that in the early 2000's and my Spanish properties cost me an extra £10K from the day I looked at them to the day I moved the money across a few months later.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

I cannot see the market being flooded with properties because of Brexit - there are many other nationalities buying property in Spain who have Euros and are not affected by Brexit. You might miss the boat if you wait in terms of your rights which might be less given Brits will not be EU citizens but as others have pointed out Brits were buying property here before UK was an EU member. For accurate Brexit advice worth a look here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/advice-f...ghts-agreement

Fluctuating currency exchange is a fact of life for UK Expats trying to gain as many Euros as they can for their pounds. If you decide to transfer money please research the best ways to move money which is seldom (never?) using bank-bank but currency exchange companies.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Good point

Police investigate after Britons lose holiday home money in £10m company collapse
A couple who lost £272,000 say the collapse "stole our future and our dreams" - but they won't get any compensation.

https://news.sky.com/story/police-in...lapse-11492763

See thread

https://britishexpats.com/forum/spai...-money-917030/

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Do you really want a holiday home ? Why not just keep the money in the UK ? There are plenty of short term rental options for holidays and you will escape all the hassle and expense of owning a property over a 1,000 miles away in a different country with a different langauage. Also you will gain greater flexibility in terms of holiday destination choice, no obligation to visit "your holiday home" , you can go anywhere in the world.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

OK so I will throw this into the mix and it should be treated as pure speculation and hearsay by anyone reading this.
I stayed with a very close friend in London last week who works for Commerzbank in London as a trader.
He told me that the currency market is currently priced - €1.09 - €1.16 for the UK getting a reasonable deal with the EU.
He stated that the Commerzbank estimation of where the pound would go in the months after a no deal Brexit could be as low as €0.89
He seem to think that the only upside for the pound to move significantly up, would be a second referendum / or that Brexit is halted in some way.He also stated that Commerzbank has no banking license to operate in the UK, outside of their Germany EU license and that the true effect of the UK exiting the EU without a deal would be very hard on the financial institutions and the currency .

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

Not aimed at Mickey

Loafing, you are spot on, the reason most don’t is greed. They also want the holiday home to let out on the QT and make a few quid tax free. They also believe property only ever goes up in value.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...61b77befa8.jpg

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

That is a very UK mind-set - Property always goes up - until it doesn´t!

There is nothing wrong with wanting a holiday home and say borrowing a 30% mortgage and renting the Villa out to help pay for this mortgage.
In fact you get tax relief on the debt, from your rental income. Works fine so long as you can actually afford the mortgage with no rental income for example.

Re: To Buy Or Not To Buy
 

I'm not sure you do any more.

With the new licencing issues, this may not be the best advice.