The sequence that survives contact with a real country is short. Decide what the property is for. Instruct your own lawyer. Read the title and the debts on it. Understand the money, including tax and currency. Only then get attached to the light in the kitchen. The buying-overseas page on this site goes further into that order. This note is the version you can hold in your head at a viewing.
Purpose changes every later question
A holiday house, a future home, a rental and a family purchase share a building and little else. Residence plans, who will use it, whether you will borrow, and which currency you earn in all change the lawyer’s questions and the lender’s. Write them down before an agent’s timetable becomes yours.
Title and the people
Freehold, leasehold and local equivalents are different rights. The register, where one exists, is the document. Encumbrances are claims already on the property. Co-owners may have to sign. Your lawyer should be independent of the agent and the seller. A lawyer at home can help with how the purchase sits in your wider life. They are not, by that fact, qualified to transfer the title.
Money, tax and use
Ask for the costs on this property: transfer taxes, registration, legal fees, and notary costs where a notary is used. This site states no rate. If your savings are in another currency, the amount you must send moves with the rate. If you will let the property or leave it empty, tell the insurer and ask about local permission to let. A yield in a brochure is not those permissions.
Check the property and the money as two projects
A purchase abroad has a legal track and a money track, and they fail separately. On the legal track, ask who is qualified to act for you in that country, what title will be checked, and which taxes or costs are payable on completion. On the money track, ask how the deposit and the balance will be paid, in which currency, and what the receiving bank will want as evidence of source of funds. A reservation fee paid before either track is clear is how people become committed to a property they have not yet understood.
Ask what you are buying. An apartment with a community, a house with land, a property that is new and unfinished, and a property you intend to let are different risks. Ask who maintains the building, what regular charges exist, and whether a tenant or a debt comes with the sale. Those answers belong in writing from the person acting for you, not in a listing.
Plan the currency before you need the completion funds
Agree how exchange rate movement will be handled between reservation and completion. A price in one currency and savings in another can move by enough to matter, and nobody in the chain is obliged to absorb that for you. Ask your payment provider for the practical steps and the questions they will ask on a large transfer. Leave time. A completion date that assumes the money can be sent the night before is a fragile plan.
If you may need a mortgage, ask a lender whether they lend to non-residents on that type of property before you treat the purchase as financed. Terms, including how much they will lend, are theirs to set and are not stated here. If you will own through a company, stop and take advice before you sign as an individual. The ownership route changes tax, lending and what happens when you sell. It is not a detail to add afterwards.
Before you act
Walk the money against the contract dates. Note when a deposit is due, when the balance is due, and how many days your bank and your payment provider say they need for a transfer of that size, including any questions they may ask. Put those days on the same page as the notary’s date. If they do not fit, change the plan while changing it is still a conversation. Ask your adviser which name should be on the contract before you pay, especially if a partner or a company might own the property with you. A payment from the wrong person, into the wrong name, is a source-of-funds puzzle you do not need to invent.
A practical checklist
- Purpose written down.
- Independent local lawyer instructed.
- Title and debts read.
- Deposit terms read before money moves.
- All-in cost requested for this property.
- Currency and source of funds planned.
- Insurance and letting rules asked, not assumed.
Questions to ask
- Who is on the title, and who must sign?
- What am I actually buying: freehold, leasehold, or a local equivalent?
- Is this deposit refundable?
- What are the costs beyond the price?
- Can I let it, and what does that require?
- What happens to the property if I die?
Common mistakes
- Using the seller’s lawyer as your own.
- Paying a reservation you have not read.
- A mortgage decision in one country treated as an offer on this house.
- Ignoring currency until completion week.
- Insuring it as a home you live in when you will not.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
