The Overseas Property Market

The Risks

Excising the Risks –

An article by Ross Clark ‘What’s the Catch’ Sunday Times May 27 2007 highlighted the fact that ‘it’s all too easy to be seduced by marketing hype in the rush to snap up a foreign bargain’. Examples where people fell foul included:

• A level crossing in Spain that, by the time a property was completed, became a flyover just seventy yards from the house

• Valencia’s urbanisation law which gives developers powers to compulsory purchase homes for new estates and contribute towards new infrastructures

• 4,500 homes in Marbella face being bulldozed because they have been built on public land

• Buyers in coastal and ski resorts in Bulgaria complaining that buildings are not up to standard and ‘guaranteed’ rental income has failed to materialise

• Obtaining clear title in Croatia is difficult

• Signing contracts in languages they did not understand and without legal representation

• Being unable to sue in the UK

The article concludes that UK buyers would not relish taking buyers to court in another jurisdiction.

Opida - the Excision of Risk and Maximisation of  Reward

All of the risks highlighted by Ross Clark in his article would have been avoided if investors had acquired Opida Approved Product from Opida Approved Developers.