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Greece: Good and bad news in Greece - Mike Saunders, Snobby Homes

What do you want? The good news or the bad news?

Come the Budget in October, the Chancellor will have little option but to squeeze the UK economy even tighter. What’s more there’s some bad news on the UK property front that could delay your dreams of moving to the sun. You really do need to sit down – now – and plan what you need to do, before it’s too late.

THE BAD NEWS
Leading accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers, have published a report on the UK housing market claiming that house prices could remain below their peak levels for the next ten years. In other words there is a 50% chance your home will be worth less in 2020 than it was in 2007. They forecast house prices could plunge by 25% over the next three years.

Ed Stansfield – Chief Property Economist, of Capital Economics - goes one step further. He forecasts property prices will drop by 5% by the end of this year, followed by a 10% drop in 2011 and a further drop of 10% in 2012. In real terms that means the average home today, worth £162,000, will drop to £125,000 by the end of 2012! Take your time and money will just run through your fingers and be wasted.

Ray Clinn, Head of Pensions for Liverpool Victoria Insurance says, “Britain’s over 50’s have already seen their pension pots damaged by the economic crisis in the UK and we estimate 28% of people aged over 50 will be forced to delay their retirement.” Do you want to spend the rest of your life having to work and then having to count the pennies just to live?

THE GOOD NEWS
Over the last two years our own company, Snobby Homes, has seen a positive rise in enquiries and number of appointments to view our properties in Crete. So we know there is a growing pent –up market desperate to leave the UK, but in most cases they cannot make the move until they sell their house and generate the necessary equity.

Naturally everyone wants to get the best price they can for the sale of their house – but the question is can you afford to wait? Prices in Crete have remained relatively stable and are even likely to rise slightly in 2011. If you have a house with a market value of £162,000, by the end of next year you could have lost nearly £20,000 – and the year after that ANOTHER £17,000 – and that’s not to mention on-going expenses of council tax and TV license, and increase cost of living. The longer you stay in the UK the more money it’s going to cost you. The sooner you do something about it, the more you’ll save. Where would you rather be? Lying out in the sun enjoying a wonderful life – or sitting indoors worried about whether you can afford to turn the heating up?

WHAT TO DO?
Let’s say you’re coming up to retirement and your mortgage is paid up. Bite the bullet and put your house on the market for a quick sale. If you have an average priced house of £162,000, market it for £149,000 – that’s a huge drop of £13,000 – and makes a really attractive price for a fast sale. After the sale costs and legal expenses that would leave you with around £142,000 – on today’s rate that’s equivalent to 170,000 euros.
Move to Crete and as an example, take one of our Snobbys – a two double bedroom detached villa, standing in a spacious walled garden. That would cost you around 120,000 euros and that price includes all purchase costs, fixtures and fittings, so there’s nothing else you need budget for. You’d arrive in Crete, everything paid for, with a nice little nest egg of over 50,000 euros!

Factor in a UK state pension for a married couple of around 750 euros per month, plus a private pension of perhaps 500 euros and you’ll be living the life of Riley. A couple in Crete can live comfortably on 1,000 euros a month – and on top of that you have money behind you too.

Is it really worth losing out on the rest of your life because you want to squeeze that last penny out of your house – when likely as not you’ll lose money while waiting?

If you would like to receive accurate information on a property and living package in Crete just let me know and I’ll do my best to help.

Mike Saunders

Mike is Marketing director of Snobby Homes, www.snobbyhomes.co.uk

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