- Americans consider crossing the Atlantic for many reasons, including affordable housing.
- Brokers from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece are seeing a surge in interest from overseas buyers.
- Cheap homes are attractive, but so are strong dollars, a laid-back lifestyle, and beautiful scenery.
More and more Americans are looking to escape to Europe.
Demand from overseas homebuyers is increasing across Europe, brokers said in Berkshire Hathaway Home Services’ August 3 market report.
Thanks to a strong dollar, many European countries have become popular destinations for international travel this summer. But some people want more than a vacation.
“This is no longer an escape from COVID,” said Marcus Benussi, managing partner and general counsel for Berkshire Hathaway’s outposts in Rome and Lake Como, in a report. “Italy is becoming a more permanent model for life and family decisions. More and more people are choosing to move to Italy because they value quality of life above all else.”
The US housing market has undergone a dramatic wave of change over the past two years, characterized by high prices and fierce competition for available housing. Currently, relatively high mortgage rates are hurting affordability, and uncertainty is growing as recession fears loom. In interviews and market reports, brokers say Americans are willing to uproot their lives in America for a new life in Europe. According to Sotheby’s International’s Realty’s 2022 report, France, Italy, Greece and Portugal are receiving the most attention from US buyers.
Brokers say Americans are considering Western Europe for a more laid-back lifestyle, beautiful scenery and cheaper housing. The rise of remote work has increased flexibility. What’s more, for those earning their wages in US dollars, Europe has become even cheaper this summer, with the euro depreciating to par with the US dollar in July. The last time it happened was in 2002.
Stephanie Sinclair, a 40-year-old entrepreneur, told Bloomberg in July that she was paying $3,000 a month for a four-bedroom home in Atlanta. She had saved $300,000 to buy her home, but she was having no luck in the hot market of the Georgian capital.
Instead, she decided to move to Italy and bought a 3,100-square-foot house, the house next door, and an 800-square-foot storefront in the small Sicilian town of Mussomeli.
“If the U.S. market wasn’t so crazy, I wouldn’t have considered buying in Italy,” Sinclair told Bloomberg.
Sotheby’s told Bloomberg that Americans accounted for 12% of the property it bought in Italy in the first quarter. In 2021, only 5% of Americans. Sotheby’s told Bloomberg that requests from Americans wanting to immigrate to Greece increased by 40% year-on-year from April 2022 to June.
Hugo Bagration, Berkshire Hathway’s head of business expansion in Marbella, a coastal city in southern Spain, said in a summer report from a brokerage firm that Spain charges owners of luxury properties higher taxes than neighboring countries. US and Canadian buyers are on the rise. EU.
In July, real estate firm Knight Frank found that US buyers could effectively get a 16% discount in France due to currency changes. In his July report from Knight Frank, he also notes that in his first five months of 2022, property searches in France by US-based buyers have increased 37% from last year. The searches primarily targeted Paris, Provence, the French Riviera and southwestern France.
In a Sotheby’s report, Paulo Fernández, managing owner of Paris West Sotheby’s International Realty, said the number of international visitors to the Sotheby’s Paris site jumped 40% year-on-year in early 2022. .
Another attraction of Europe is the ease of immigration to many countries. For example, Greece and Portugal make it fairly easy for Americans (or residents of any country) to settle in the country via their “Golden Visa” program.
In Portugal, a residence visa is granted with a minimum investment of €350,000 or $359,000 in real estate. Similarly, in Greece, you get the same with a minimum purchase of €250,000 ($256,000).