London in particular has seen a recent tremendous increase in people looking at properties for sale.
The South West and South East of England are only slightly behind London in the number of people looking to purchase another property.
Since the beginning of the credit crunch the sales of foreign properties for use as a second home by Britains has fallen very steeply.
People simply had no confidece in their financial future to commit to such a major purchase.
Even most of those who had been seriously considering buying a second home before the credit crunch put their purchase on hold.
Now many consider this to be an ideal time to purchase abroad, as also due to the credit crunch, many owners of foreign second homes are being forced to sell, often at well below the actual value.
Having decided to make the move, the next consideration is how best to fund the purchase.
If the foreign property costs £100,000 or less a good suggestion could be to arrange a secured loan, i.e. a loan secured against your U.K. property.
A secured loan is based on releasing equity tied up in your property.
Equity is basically the difference between the value of your property and the mortgage balance.
Therefore if your property is worth £400,000 and your mortgage balance is £120,000, you would have £280,000 equity.
Some secured lenders are only too happy to grant a secured loan for a second home purchase, but others are unwilling. Some secured loan lenders only grant secured loans up to a maximum of £50,000, but others will give you a secured loan of up to £100,000 or even more.
Some banks may grant you a secured loan, but normally they are only prepared to lend up to about £25,000-£30,000.
It is probably best to contact a secured loan broker who will deal with numerous specialist secured loan lenders to obtain the best deal for you.
He can conduct the whole transaction by phone and post or most secured loan brokers are only too happy to call at your house or even your place of business to discuss everything with you.
He can go over the application with you, collect any information required, such as wage informatiion and hand you a copy of your credit agreement.
However,by law, the credit agreement which you must sign must be sent to you by post for a secured loan.
One great advantage of taking out a secured loan,is that you do not require a deposit, as you would by taking out a mortgage on your foreign property.
Therefore apply for your secured loan and once you have received the funds, go and enjoy yourself looking for your home in the sun.
