No mortgage required: Where to get a house for the price of a car

http://property.timesonline.co.uk, 27th May 2007

A property you can buy on your credit card? It is not as improbable as it sounds. Despite surging markets around the world, there are still places where you can pick up something habitable for the price of the average family car.

Rural Bulgaria is a good place to start. Bulgarian Properties (00 359 2 868 1188, www.bulgarianproperties.com) has a wide range of village houses from just £5,000. But be ready to do some work – and don’t expect an indoor lavatory.

Other former communist countries are slightly more expensive, but you can buy a country house in Prekmurje, the picturesque wine-growing region of northeast Slovenia, for example, for £17,000 (00 386 41 682614, www.sloveniacottages.com). Or look across the border in Slovakia or Hungary, where £50,000 would buy a house near Lake Balaton, a holiday spot for much of the former communist world (Balaton Properties, 020 7078 7246, www.balatonproperties.co.uk).

Keen on a sea view or something in the mountains? You could get either in Bulgaria for as little as £20,000 – but take all those predictions of instant profit with a pinch of salt, as oversupply may keep a lid on future price rises. The Croatian coast is a more upmarket alternative: Savills has flats five minutes from the beach at Split for £52,444 (020 7016 3740, www.savills.co.uk).

Up your credit limit and parts of France, Italy and Spain come within reach. “About a quarter of the properties on our books cost £75,000 or below, mostly in northern and central France,” says Cheryl Townend, of French Property Shop (02392 522403, www.frenchpropertyshop.com). “Most are two-bedroom semidetached houses, perhaps requiring a little work.”

The shock waves running through Spain’s market are moderating prices there, too. In Andalusia, you can buy a rare inland finca needing renovation for £30,000, or a distinctive cave home near Granada for £55,000. Parts of Italy are also surprisingly cheap.

And don’t forget America: thanks to the weak dollar and the wobbling property market, you can pick up a one- or two-bedroom flat in Florida for less than £70,000. “With price falls of 10% or 15%, there’s now a more realistic chance of rents covering mortgage costs,” says Charles Weston-Baker, head of international sales at Savills. “It’s an unexpectedly good result of a market that has corrected its prices.” Turkey has hundreds of miles of coast and low property prices. And Morocco is emerging as a cut-price alternative to the Costa del Sol. King Mohammed VI’s multi-billion-dollar tourism initiative, 2010 Vision, has earmarked six resorts, five on the Atlantic coast and one on the Mediterranean, for significant development. There are plenty of choices for less than £50,000 in both countries.

Also worth considering is the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, which has lots of sun, fairly cheap flights and flats at just £25,000 – although you should watch out for poor build quality.

Not exotic enough? What about a holiday villa on Margarita Island, off Venezuela, for £55,000, or a flat in the Philippines for just £20,000?

Time to start flexing that plastic.

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