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

Рубрика: Property news Източник:   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.