Monday, October 13, 2003
Why are property prices so low in other countries?
I have been looking at a TV programme called “A place in the sun” where a girl (it used to be Amanda Lamb of the Scottish Widows ads) looks for properties abroad for people who want to emigrate or have a holiday home.
She often goes to countries which have a good standard of living, but the houses are extremely cheap compared with England.
For instance, once she was in Florida not a long way from Disneyland and showed several ranch style houses with several bedrooms, swimming pool, double garages, conservatory and lots of space around which were all in the £120,000 to £150,000 range. The room sizes were enormous by English standards. Some were new and given that the price has to include profit and sale fees, how are they so cheap? The material costs must be more than that. Certainly in England the material costs would be at least that much.
I realise that in England the demand and scarcity of land pushes up the price and low interest rates mean people can get a large mortgage sum, but I’m still surprised.
Other countries with similar good value include Australia and the Canary Islands.
